The development of regret and relief about the outcomes of risky decisions

Abstract

Although a number of studies have examined the developmental emergence of counterfactual emotions of regret and relief, none of these has used tasks that resemble those used with adolescents and adults, which typically involve risky decision making. We examined the development of the counterfactual emotions of regret and relief in two experiments using a task in which children chose between one of two gambles that varied in risk. In regret trials they always received the best prize from that gamble but were then shown that they would have obtained a better prize had they chosen the alternative gamble, whereas in relief trials the other prize was worse. We compared two methods of measuring regret and relief based on children's reported emotion on discovering the outcome of the alternative gamble: one in which children judged whether they now felt the same, happier, or sadder on seeing the other prize and one in which children made emotion ratings on a 7-point scale after the other prize was revealed. On both of these methods, we found that 6- and 7-year-olds' and 8- and 9-year-olds' emotions varied appropriately depending on whether the alternative outcome was better or worse than the prize they had actually obtained, although the former method was more sensitive. Our findings indicate that by at least 6 or 7years children experience the same sorts of counterfactual emotions as adults in risky decision-making tasks, and they also suggest that such emotions are best measured by asking children to make comparative emotion judgments.

Regret and Decision-Making: A Developmental Perspective

“…It is possible to adapt the boxes task so that it, too, is a risky decision-making task; we asked children to choose between a “safe” box (50–50 chance of winning, e.g., either 7 or 10 tokens) or a “risky” box (50–50 chance of winning, e.g., either 16 or only 1 token). We found that most 6- to 7-year-olds experienced regret when they chose the risky box but got a poor prize, in line with findings from adults (McCormack, O’Connor, Beck, & Feeney, 2016).…”

The Functional Theory of Counterfactual Thinking: New Evidence, New Challenges, New Insights

“…Thus, this experiment indicated counterfactual-fueled performance improvement, although in this circumstance we cannot be sure whether the effect was content-specific or content-neutral (or both; see also O'Connor, McCormack, & Feeney, 2014). That regret is experienced at around age 6 is also supported by evidence from risky decision tasks (McCormack, O'Connor, Beck, & Feeney, 2016).…”

Experiencing regret about a choice helps children learn to delay gratification

“…Three lines of evidence suggest that simple frustration of this sort is not the emotion underpinning children's responses in this type of choice procedures: first, whether children report feeling sad is moderated by their level of responsibility in determining the outcome (O'Connor, McCormack, Beck, & Feeney, 2015;Weisberg & Beck, 2012), which would be predicted if regret was the underpinning emotion. Second, children also report feeling sad after receiving the relevant counterfactual information even if they already know they have not got the best available prize (McCormack, O'Connor, Beck, & Feeney, 2016). Third, when children are asked to provide explanations of their reported change in emotions, the majority of 6-to 7-year-olds make explicit reference to the counterfactual prize, and around a third of children use counterfactual language in their explanations (O'Connor et al, 2012).…”