When goal pursuit fails: The functions of counterfactual thought in intention formation

Social Psychology

Volumn 42, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 19-27

  Epstude, Kai ^a   Roese, Neal J ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN   (Netherlands)

^b NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Counterfactual thinking; Goals; Intentions; Motivation; Regret; Volition

Indexed keywords

EID: 79955091435     PISSN: 18649335     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000039     Document Type: Article

References (87)

1. Aarts, H., Custers, R., & Holland, R. W. (2007). The nonconscious cessation of goal pursuit: When goals and negative affect are coactivated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 165-178.
2. Baumeister, R. F., & Masicampo, E. J. (2010). Conscious thought is for facilitating social and cultural interactions: How simulations serve the animal-culture interface. Psychological Review, 117, 945-971.
3. Baumeister, R. F., Masicampo, E. J., & Vohs, K. D. (in press). Do conscious thoughts cause behavior? Annual Review of Psychology.
4. Brendl, C. M., & Higgins, E. T. (1996). Principles of judging valence: What makes events positive or negative? In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 28, pp. 95-160). San Diego: Academic Press.
5. Brendl, C. M., Higgins, E. T., & Lemm, K. M. (1995). Sensitivity to varying gains and losses: The role of self-discrepancies and event framing. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 69, 1028-1051.
6. Brunstein, J. C., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). The effects of failure on subsequent performance: The importance of self-defining goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 395-407.
7. Burrus, J., & Roese, N. J. (2006). Long ago it was meant to be: The interplay between time, construal, and fate beliefs. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1050-1058. (Pubitemid 44060253)
8. Byrne, R. M. J. (2005). The rational imagination: How people create alternatives to reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
9. Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1990). Origins and functions of positive and negative affect: A control-process view. Psychological Review, 97, 19-35.
10. Dembo, T. (1931). der Ärger als dynamisches Problem [Anger as a dynamical problem]. Psychologische Forschung, 15, 1-144.
11. Epstude, K., & Roese, N. J. (2007). Beyond rationality: Counterfactual thinking and behavior regulation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30, 457-458. (Pubitemid 351454202)
12. Epstude, K., & Roese, N. J. (2008). The functional theory of counterfactual thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12, 168-192.
13. Epstude, K., & Roese, N. J. (2010). Function follows from structure: Counterfactuals and their role in goal-attainment after failure. Manuscript in preparation.
14. Fishbach, A., & Ferguson, M. F. (2007). The goal construct in social psychology. In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 490-515). New York: Guilford.
15. Förster, J., Liberman, N., & Higgins, E. T. (2005). Accessibility from active and fulfilled goals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 220-239. (Pubitemid 40427035)
16. Galinsky, A., & Kray, L. J. (2004). From thinking about what might have been to sharing what we know: The role of counterfactual mind-sets on information sharing in groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 606-618. (Pubitemid 39659330)
17. Galinsky, A. D., Moskowitz, G. B., & Skurnik, I. W. (2000). Counterfactuals as self-generated primes: The effect of prior counterfactual activation on person perception judgments. Social Cognition, 18, 252-280.
18. Gilovich, T., & Medvec, V. H. (1995). The experience of regret: What, when, and why. Psychological Review, 102, 379-395.
19. Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Chen, S. (1995). Omission, commission, and dissonance reduction: Overcoming regret in the Monty Hall problem. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 182-190.
20. Goldinger, S. D., Kleider, H. M., Azuma, T., & Beike, D. R. (2003). Blaming the victim under memory load. Psychological Science, 14, 81-85.
21. Gollwitzer, P. M. (1990). Action phases and mind-sets. In E. T. Higgins & R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 53-92). New York: Guilford.
22. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69-119). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press. (Pubitemid 43649352)
23. Goodman, N. (1947). The problem of counterfactual conditionals. Journal of Philosophy, 44, 113-128.
24. Goschke, T., & Kuhl, J. (1993). Representation of intentions: Persisting activation in memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 1211-1226.
25. Habermas, J. (1992). Faktizität und Geltung: Beiträge zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des demokratischen Rechtsstaat [Between facts and norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy]. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
26. Heckhausen, H. (1991). Motivation and action. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
27. Higgins, E. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280-1300.
28. Higgins, E. T. (2006). Value from hedonic experience and engagement. Psychological Review, 113, 439-460. (Pubitemid 44118165)
29. Hofstadter, D. R. (1979). Gödel, Escher, Bach. New York: Vintage Books.
30. Idson, L. C., Liberman, N., & Higgins, E. T. (2000). Distinguishing gains from nonlosses and losses from nongains: A regulatory focus perspective on hedonic intensity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 36, 252-274.
31. Johnson-Laird, P. N., & Byrne, R. M. J. (2002). Conditionals: A theory of meaning, pragmatics, and inference. Psychological Review, 109, 646-678.
32. Kahneman, D. (1995). Varieties of counterfactual thinking. In N. J. Roese & J. M. Olson (Eds.), What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 375-396). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
33. Kahneman, D., & Miller, D. T. (1986). Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review, 93, 136-153.
34. Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1982). The simulation heuristic. In D. Kahneman, E. Slovic, & A. Tversky, (Eds.), Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases (pp. 201-208). New York: Cambridge University Press.
35. King, L. A., & Hicks, J. A. (2007). Whatever happened to "what might have been"? Regret, happiness, and maturity. American Psychologist, 62, 625-636.
36. Koole, S., Smeets, K., Van Knippenberg, A., & Dijksterhuis, A. (1999). The cessation of rumination through self-affirmation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 111-125.
37. Kray, L. J., & Galinsky, A. D. (2003). The debiasing effect of counterfactual mind-sets: Increasing the search for disconfirmatory information in groups. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 91, 69-81. (Pubitemid 36556661)
38. Kray, L. J., Galinsky, A. D., & Wong, E. M. (2006). Thinking within the box: The relational processing style elicited by counterfactual mind-sets. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 33-48. (Pubitemid 44118154)
39. Kray, L. J., George, L. G., Liljenquist, K. A., Galinsky, A. D., Tetlock, P. E., & Roese, N. J. (2010). From what might have been to what must have been: Counterfactual thinking creates meaning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 106-118.
40. Kuhl, J. (1985). Volitional mediators of cognition-behavior consistency: Self-regulatory processes and action versus state orientation. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckman (Eds.), Action control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 101-128). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
41. Lewin, K. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw-Hill.
42. Liljenquist, K., Galinsky, A. D., & Kray, L. J. (2004). Exploring the rabbit hole of possibilities with myself or with my group: The benefits and liabilities of activating counterfactual mindsets for information sharing and group coordination. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 17, 263-279. (Pubitemid 39604570)
43. Mandel, D. R. (2003). Counterfactuals, emotions, and context. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 139-159. (Pubitemid 36149821)
44. Marguc, J., Förster, J., & van Kleef, G. A. (2009). Stepping back to see the big picture: Obstacles increase perceptual scope and breadth of categorization. Manuscript submitted for publication.
45. Markman, K. D., Lindberg, M. J., Kray, L. J., & Galinsky, A. D. (2007). Implications of counterfactual structure for creativity and analytical problem solving. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 312-324.
46. Markman, K. D., & McMullen, M. N. (2003). A reflection and evaluation model of comparative thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 244-267. (Pubitemid 36891965)
47. Markman, K. D., McMullen, M. N., & Elizaga, R. A. (2008). Counterfactual thinking, persistence, and performance: A test of the reflection and evaluation model. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 421-428.
48. Markman, K. D., McMullen, M. N., Elizaga, R. A., & Mizoguchi, N. (2006). Counterfactual thinking and regulatory fit. Judgment and Decision-Making, 1, 98-107.
49. Mayr, U., & Keele, S. (2000). Changing internal constraints on action: The role of backward inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 4-26.
50. McCrea, S. M. (2008). Self-handicapping, excuse-making, and counterfactual thinking: Consequences for self-esteem and future motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 274-292.
51. McCrea, S. M., & Hirt, E. R. (2001). The role of ability judgments in self-handicapping. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1378-1389.
52. McEleney, A., & Byrne, R. M. J. (2006). Spontaneous causal and counterfactual thoughts. Thinking and Reasoning, 12, 235-255
53. Mellers, B. A., Schwartz, A., Ho, K., & Ritov, I. (1997). Decision affect theory: Emotional reactions to the outcomes of risky options. Psychological Science, 8, 423-429.
54. Moskowitz, G. B. (2002). Preconscious effects of temporary goals on attention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 397-404.
55. Nasco, S. A., & Marsh, K. L. (1999). Gaining control through counterfactual thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 556-568.
56. Niedenthal P. M., Tangney J. P., & Gavanski I. (1994). "If only I weren't" versus "If only I hadn't": Distinguishing shame and guilt in counterfactual thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 584-95.
57. Oettingen, G., & Kappes, A. (2009). Mental contrasting of the future and reality to master negative feedback. In K. Markman, B. Klein, & J. Suhr (Eds.), The handbook of imagination and mental simulation (pp. 395-412). New York: Psychology Press.
58. Oettingen, G., & Mayer, D. (2002). The motivating function of thinking about the future: Expectations versus fantasies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1198-1212.
59. Pennington, G. L., & Roese, N. J. (2003). Counterfactual thinking and regulatory focus. In S. J. Spencer, S. Fein, M. P. Zanna, & J. M. Olson (Eds.), Motivated social perception: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 9, pp. 277-298). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
60. Petrocelli, J. V., & Sherman, S. J. (2010). Event detail and confidence in gambling: The role of counterfactual thought reactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 61-72.
61. Pieters, R., & Zeelenberg, M. (2005). On bad decisions and deciding badly: When intention-behavior inconsistency is regrettable. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97, 18-30. (Pubitemid 40621127)
62. Rajagopal, P., Raju, S., & Unnava, H. R. (2006). Differences in the cognitive accessibility of action and inaction regrets. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 302-313. (Pubitemid 43585826)
63. Reb, J. (2008). Regret aversion and decision process quality: Effects of regret salience on decision process carefulness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 169-182.
64. Roese, N. J. (1994). The functional basis of counterfactual thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 805-818.
65. Roese, N. J. (1997). Counterfactual thinking. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 133-148. (Pubitemid 127705288)
66. Roese, N. J., Epstude, K., Fessel, F., Morrison, M., Smallman, R., Summerville, A., Segerstrom, S. (2009). Repetitive regret, depression, and anxiety: Findings from a nationally representative survey. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28, 671-688.
67. Roese, N. J., Hur, T., & Pennington, G. L. (1999). Counterfactual thinking and regulatory focus: Implications for action versus inaction and sufficiency versus necessity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1109-1120.
68. Roese, N. J., & Olson, J. M. (1993). The structure of counterfactual thought. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 312-319.
69. Roese, N. J., Park, S., Smallman, R., & Gibson, C. (2008). Schizophrenia involves impairment in the activation of intentions by counterfactual thinking. Schizophrenia Research, 103, 143-144.
70. Roese, N. J., Pennington, G., Coleman, J., Janicki, M., Li, N., & Kenrick, D. T. (2006). Sex differences in regret: All for love or some for lust? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 770-780. (Pubitemid 43679866)
71. Roese, N. J., Sanna, L. J., & Galinsky, A. D. (2005). The mechanics of imagination: Automaticity and control in counterfactual thinking. In R. R. Hassin, J. S. Uleman, & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The new unconscious (pp. 138-170). New York: Oxford University Press.
72. Sanna, L. J., & Turley, K. J. (1996). Antecedents to spontaneous counterfactual thinking: Effects of expectancy violation and outcome valence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 906-919.
73. Savitsky, K., Medvec, V. H., & Gilovich, T. (1997). Remembering and regretting: The Zeigarnik effect and the cognitive availability of regrettable actions and inactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 248-257.
74. Sirois, F. M., Monforton, J., & Simpson, M. (in press). "If only I had done better": Perfectionism and the functionality of counterfactual thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
75. Smallman, R. (2010). The role of relevant information in functional counterfactual thinking. Dissertation submitted to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
76. Smallman, R., & Roese, N. J. (2009). Counterfactual thinking facilitates behavioral intentions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 845-852.
77. Smallman, R., Epstude, K., & Roese, N. J. (2009). Negative affect as a trigger of counterfactual thinking. Manuscript in preparation.
78. Smith, E. R. (1994). Procedural knowledge and processing strategies in social cognition. In R. S. Wyer & T. K. Srull (Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (Vol. 1, pp. 99-151). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
79. Smith, E. R., & DeCoster, J. (2000). Dual process models in social and cognitive psychology: Conceptual integration and links to underlying memory systems. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 108-131.
80. Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowitz (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261-302). New York: Academic Press.
81. Strack, F., & Deutsch, R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 220-247. (Pubitemid 39288823)
82. Summerville, A., & Roese, N. J. (2008). Self-report measures of individual differences in regulatory focus: A cautionary note. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 247-254.
83. Vaihinger, H. (1924/1965). Die Philosophie des Als Ob [The philosophy of "as-if."]. Leipzig: Meiner.
84. Walsh, C. R., & Byrne, R. M. J. (2007). The effects of reasons for acting on counterfactual thinking. Thinking and Reasoning, 13, 461-483.
85. Zeelenberg, M., Beattie, J., van der Pligt, J., & de Vries, N. K. (1996). Consequences of regret aversion: Effects of expected feedback on risky decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 65, 148-158. (Pubitemid 126166240)
86. 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, 114-1120.
87. Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Über das Behalten erledigter und unerledigter Handlungen [On finished and unfinished tasks]. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1-85.