What we regret most . . . and why

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Volumn 31, Issue 9, 2005, Pages 1273-1285

  Roese, Neal J ^a   Summerville, Amy ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

Author keywords

Cognitive dissonance; Counterfactual; Decision making; Emotion

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CLINICAL TRIAL; COGNITION; CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL; CONTROLLED STUDY; DECISION MAKING; EMOTION; FEMALE; HUMAN; LIFE EVENT; MALE; META ANALYSIS; NONPARAMETRIC TEST; PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY; STATISTICAL MODEL; UNITED STATES;

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE; DECISION MAKING; EMOTIONS; FEMALE; HUMANS; ILLINOIS; LIFE CHANGE EVENTS; LOGISTIC MODELS; MALE; PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY; STATISTICS, NONPARAMETRIC;

EID: 24344478846     PISSN: 01461672     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0146167205274693     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Brehm, J. W., & Wicklund, R. A. (1970). Regret and dissonance reduction as a function of postdecision salience of dissonant information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 14, 1-7.
2. Connolly, T., & Zeelenberg, M. (2002). Regret in decision making. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 212-216.
3. Cooper, J., & Fazio, R. (1984). A new look at dissonance theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 17, pp. 229-266). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
4. Cummins, R. A. (1996). The domains of life satisfaction: An attempt to order chaos. Social Indicators Research, 38, 303-328.
5. DeGenova, M. K. (1992). If you had your life to live over again: What would you do differently? International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 34, 135-143.
6. Erskine, H. (1973). The polls: Hopes, fears, and regrets. Public Opinion Quarterly, 37, 132-145.
7. Festinger, L., & Walster, E. (1964). Post-decision regret and decision reversal. In L. Festinger (Ed.), Conflict, decision, and dissonance (pp. 112-127). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
8. Frisch, M. B., Cornell,J., Villanueva, M., & Retzlaff, P.J. (1992). Clinical validation of the Quality of Life Inventory. A measure of life satisfaction for use in treatment planning and outcome assessment. Psychological Assessment, 4, 92-101.
9. Gilbert, D. T., & Ebert, J. E. J. (2002). Decisions and revisions: The affective forecasting of changeable outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 503-514.
10. Gilbert, D. T., Morewedge, C. K., Risen, J. L., & Wilson, T. D. (2004). Looking forward to looking backward: The misprediction of regret. Psychological Science, 15, 346-350.
11. Gilovich, T., & Medvec, V. H. (1994). The temporal pattern to the experience of regret. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 357-365.
12. Gilovich, T., & Medvec, V. H. (1995). The experience of regret: What, when, and why. Psychological Review, 102, 379-395.
13. Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Chen, S. (1995). Commission, omission, and dissonance reduction: Coping with the "Monty Hall" problem. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 182-190.
14. Gilovich, T., Wang, R. F., Regan, D., & Nishina, S. (2003). Regrets of action and inaction across cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 34, 61-71.
15. Hattiangadi, N., Medvec, V. H., & Gilovich, T. (1995). Failing to act: Regrets of Terman's geniuses. International Journal of Human Development, 40, 175-185.
16. Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 995-1006.
17. Jokisaari, M. (2003). Regret appraisals, age, and subjective well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 487-503.
18. Kinnier, R. T., & Metha, A. T. (1989). Regrets and priorities at three stages of life. Counseling and Values, 33, 182-193.
19. Landman, J., & Manis, J. D. (1992). What might have been: Counter-factual thought concerning personal decisions. British Journal of Psychology, 83, 473-477.
20. Landman, J., Vandewater, A. A., Stewart, A. J., & Malley,J. E. (1995). Missed opportunities: Psychological ramifications of counterfactual thoughtin midlife women. Journal of Adult Development, 2,87-97.
21. Linder, D. E., Cooper, J., & Jones, E. E. (1967). Decision freedom as a determinant of the role of incentive magnitude in attitude change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 245-254.
22. Lecci, L., Okun, M. A., & Karoly, P. (1994). Life regrets and current goals as predictors of psychological adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 731-741.
23. Markman, K. D., Gavanski, I., Sherman, S. J., & McMullen, M. N. (1993). The mental simulation of better and worse possible worlds. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 87-109.
24. Metha, A., Kinnier, R., & McWhirter, E. M. (1989). Priorities and regrets of women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, 167-174.
25. Morris, M. W., & Moore, P. C. (2000). The lessons we (don't) learn: Counterfactual thinking and organizational accountability after a close call. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45, 737-765.
26. Nasco, S. A., & Marsh, K. L. (1999). Gaining control through counterfactual thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 556-568.
27. Netter, J., Kutner, M. H., Nachtsheim, C. J., & Wasserman, W. (1996). Applied linear statistical models (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
28. Oishi, S., & Diener, E. (2001). Re-examining the general positivity model of subjective well-being: The discrepancy between specific and global domain satisfaction. Journal of Personality, 69, 641-666.
29. Roese, N. (2005). If only. New York: Broadway Books.
30. Roese, N.J. (1994). The functional basis of counterfactual thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 805-818.
31. Roese, N.J. (1997). Counterfactual thinking. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 133-148.
32. Roese, N.J., & Olson, J. M. (1995). Outcome controllability and counterfactual thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 620-628.
33. Schwarz, N. (1998). Accessible content and accessibility experiences: The interplay of declarative and experiential information in judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 87-99.
34. Schwartz, B. (2000). Self-determination: The tyranny of freedom. American Psychologist, 55, 79-88.
35. Wicklund, R. A., & Brehm, J. W. (1976). Perspectives on cognitive dissonance. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
36. Wrosch, C., & Heckhausen, J. (2002). Perceived control of life regrets: Good for young and bad for old adults. Psychology and Aging, 17, 340-350.
37. Zeelenberg, M. (1999). The use of crying over spilled milk: A note on the rationality and functionality of regret. Philosophical Psychology, 12, 325-340.
38. Zeelenberg, M., Inman, J. J., & Pieters, R. G. M. (2001). What do we do when decisions go awry: Behavioral consequences of experienced regret. In J. Baron, G. Loomes, & E. Weber (Eds.), Conflict and tradeoffs in decision making (pp. 136-155). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
39. Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (1999). Comparing service delivery to what might have been: Behavioral responses to regret and disappointment. Journal of Service Research, 2, 86-97.
40. Zeelenberg, M., van der Pligt, J., & Manstead, A. S. R. (1998). Undoing regret on Dutch television: Apologizing for interpersonal regrets involving actions or inactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1113-1119.