Regret

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John Greenleaf Whittier's fictional heroine Maud Muller gazes into the distance, regretting her inaction and thinking about what might have been. Maud-Muller-Brown.jpeg
John Greenleaf Whittier's fictional heroine Maud Muller gazes into the distance, regretting her inaction and thinking about what might have been.
Apologizing for a store closure, showing regret or remorse Sorry, we've closed (50035359833).jpg
Apologizing for a store closure, showing regret or remorse

Regret is the emotion of wishing one had made a different decision in the past, because the consequences of the decision one did make were unfavorable.

Contents

Regret is related to perceived opportunity. Its intensity varies over time after the decision, in regard to action versus inaction, and in regard to self-control at a particular age. The self-recrimination which comes with regret is thought to spur corrective action and adaptation.

In Western societies adults have the highest regrets regarding choices of their education. [1]

Definition

Regret has been defined by psychologists in the late 1990s as a "negative emotion predicated on an upward, self-focused, counterfactual inference". [1] Another definition is "an aversive emotional state elicited by a discrepancy in the outcome values of chosen vs. unchosen actions". [2]

Regret differs from remorse in that people can regret things beyond their control, but remorse indicates a sense of responsibility for the situation. [3] For example, a person can feel regret that people die during natural disasters, but cannot feel remorse for that situation. However, a person who intentionally harms someone should feel remorse for those actions. Agent regret is the idea that a person could be involved in a situation, and regret their involvement even if those actions were innocent, unintentional, or involuntary. [3] For example, if someone decides to die by stepping in front of a moving vehicle, the death is not the fault of the driver, but the driver may still regret that the person died.

Regret is distinct from disappointment. Both are negative emotional experiences relating to a loss outcome, and both have similar neuronal correlates. However, they differ in regard to feedback about the outcome, comparing the difference between outcomes for the chosen vs. unchosen action; In regret, full feedback occurs and with disappointment partial feedback. They also differ in regard to agency (self in regret versus external in disappointment). [4]

Models

There are conceptual models of regret in regret (decision theory) mostly in theoretical economics and finance under a field called behavioral economics. Anticipated regret, or how much regret one thinks one will feel in the future, appears to be overestimated for actions and choices. [5] [6] This appears to be, in part, due to a tendency to underestimate the extent to which people attribute bad outcomes to external factors rather than to internal factors (i.e., themselves). [5] It can lead to inaction or inertia and omission bias. [7]

Existential regret has been specifically defined as "a profound desire to go back and change a past experience in which one has failed to choose consciously or has made a choice that did not follow one’s beliefs, values, or growth needs". [8]

Instruments to measure regret in people having to make medical decisions have failed to address current concepts of regret and failed to differentiate regret from disappointment. They have also not looked for positive impacts of regret. [9] Process regret may occur, if a person does not consider information about all available choices before making a decision. [9]

Life domains

A 2005 meta-analysis of 9 studies (7 US, one Germany, one Finland) about what adults regret most concluded, that overall adults regret choices regarding their education the most. Subsequent rankings included decisions about career, romance, and parenting. Education has been the forerunner of regret in the U.S. per Gallup surveys in 1949, 1953, and 1965. Education was the forerunner of regret because it is seen as something where circumstances could be changed: "In contemporary society, education is open to continual modification throughout life. With the rise of community colleges and student aid programs in recent decades, education of some sort is accessible to nearly all socioeconomic groups."This finding can be attributed to the principle of perceived opportunity. "People´s biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal. [1]

In other cultures, regrets may be ranked differently depending on the perceived opportunity in a particular society. [10]

In health care decisions

A 2016 review of past studies found risk factors for people to develop "decision regret" regarding their health care were: higher decisional conflict, lower satisfaction with the decision, adverse outcomes in physical health, and greater anxiety levels. [11]

Deathbed regrets

A 2018 study found that people were more likely to express "ideal-related regrets", such as failing to follow their dreams and live up to their full potential. [12] [13] This was found to correlate with the anecdotal accounts of palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware about the most common regrets she had heard expressed by those nearing death, which included:

  1. "I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
  2. "I wish I hadn’t worked so hard."
  3. "I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings."
  4. "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
  5. "I wish that I had let myself be happier." [14]

Determinants of intensity

Action versus inaction

There is an interplay between action versus inaction and time. Regrets of an action are more intense in the short term, whereas regrets of inaction are more intense over the long term. [15]

Age

In a 2001 study, high intensity of regret and intrusive thoughts in older adults was related to self-control, and low internal control was expected to be self-protective and help to decrease regret. In younger adults, internal-control facilitated active change and was associated with low intensity of regret. [16]

Opportunity

People's biggest regrets occur where they perceive the greatest and most important opportunity for corrective action. [1] When no opportunity exists to improve conditions, thought processes mitigate the cognitive dissonance caused by regret, e.g. by rationalization, and reconstrual. [1] Regret pushes people toward revised decision making and corrective action as part of learning that may bring improvement in life circumstances. A 1999 study measured regret in accordance to negative reviews with service providers. Regret was an accurate predictor of who switched providers. As more intense regret is experienced, the likelihood of initiating change is increased. Consequently, the more opportunity of corrective action available, the larger the regret felt and the more likely corrective action is achieved. Feeling regret spurs future action to make sure other opportunities are taken so that regret will not be experienced again. People learn from their mistakes. [17]

Lost opportunity principle

With a lost opportunity regret should intensify, not diminish, when people feel that they could have made better choices in the past but now perceive limited opportunities to take corrective action in the future. "People who habitually consider future consequences (and how they may avoid future negative outcomes) experience less, rather than more, intense regret after a negative outcome." [18] This principle offers another reason as to why education is the most regretted aspect in life. Education becomes a more limited opportunity as time passes. Aspects such as making friends, becoming more spiritual, and community involvement tend to be less regrettable which makes sense because these are also aspects in life that do not become limited opportunities. As the opportunity to remedy a situation passes, feelings of hopelessness may increase. [19] An explanation of the lost opportunity principle can be seen as a lack of closure: Low closure makes past occurrences feel unresolved. Low closure is associated with "reductions in self-esteem and persistent negative affect over time" and with the realization and regret of lost opportunity. High closure is associated with acceptance of lost opportunity. [20]

The lost opportunity principle suggests, that regret does not serve as a corrective motive (which the opportunity principle suggests). Instead, regret serves as a more general reminder to seize the day. [21]

Regret lingers where opportunity existed, with the self-blame of remorse being a core element to ultimately spur corrective action in decision-making. [1]

Neuroscience

Research upon brain injury and fMRI have linked the orbitofrontal cortex to the processing of regret. [22] [23]

Completeness of feedback about the outcomes after making a decision determined whether persons experienced regret (outcomes from both the choice and the alternative) vs. disappointment (partial-feedback, seeing only the outcome from the choice) in a magnetoencephalography study. Another factor was the type of agency: With personal decision making the neural correlates of regret could be seen, with external agency (computer choice) those of disappointment. Feedback regret showed greater brain activity in the right anterior and posterior regions, with agency regret producing greater activity in the left anterior region. [4] Both regret and disappointment activated anterior insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex but only with regret the lateral orbitofrontal cortex was activated. [24]

Psychopathic individuals do not show regret or remorse. This was thought to be due to an inability to generate this emotion in response to negative outcomes. However, in 2016, people with antisocial personality disorder (also known as dissocial personality disorder) were found to experience regret, but did not use the regret to guide their choice in behavior. There was no lack of regret but a problem to think through a range of potential actions and estimating the outcome values. [25]

In other species

A study published in 2014 by neuroscientists based at the University of Minnesota suggested that rats are capable of feeling regret about their actions. This emotion had never previously been found in any other mammals apart from humans. Researchers set up situations to induce regret, and rats expressed regret through both their behavior and specific neural patterns in brain activity. [26]

See also

Related Research Articles

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when an action or idea is psychologically inconsistent with the other, people do all in their power to change either so that they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remorse</span> Distressing emotion experienced by a person who regrets actions they have done in the past

Remorse is a distressing emotion experienced by an individual who regrets actions which they have done in the past that they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or wrong. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment. When a person regrets an earlier action or failure to act, it may be because of remorse or in response to various other consequences, including being punished for the act or omission. People may express remorse through apologies, trying to repair the damage they've caused, or self-imposed punishments.

A self-serving bias is any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem, or the tendency to perceive oneself in an overly favorable manner. It is the belief that individuals tend to ascribe success to their own abilities and efforts, but ascribe failure to external factors. When individuals reject the validity of negative feedback, focus on their strengths and achievements but overlook their faults and failures, or take more credit for their group's work than they give to other members, they are protecting their self-esteem from threat and injury. These cognitive and perceptual tendencies perpetuate illusions and error, but they also serve the self's need for esteem. For example, a student who attributes earning a good grade on an exam to their own intelligence and preparation but attributes earning a poor grade to the teacher's poor teaching ability or unfair test questions might be exhibiting a self-serving bias. Studies have shown that similar attributions are made in various situations, such as the workplace, interpersonal relationships, sports, and consumer decisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apology (act)</span> Verbal or written expression of regret or remorse

An apology is an expression of regret or remorse for actions, while apologizing is the act of expressing regret or remorse. In informal situations, it may be called saying sorry. The goal of apologizing is generally forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration of the relationship between the people involved in a dispute.

Omission bias is the phenomenon in which people prefer omission (inaction) over commission (action) and people tend to judge harm as a result of commission more negatively than harm as a result of omission. It can occur due to a number of processes, including psychological inertia, the perception of transaction costs, and the perception that commissions are more causal than omissions. In social political terms the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes how basic human rights are to be assessed in article 2, as "without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." criteria that are often subject to one or another form of omission bias. It is controversial as to whether omission bias is a cognitive bias or is often rational. The bias is often showcased through the trolley problem and has also been described as an explanation for the endowment effect and status quo bias.

An emotional bias is a distortion in cognition and decision making due to emotional factors.

Greenberg (1987) introduced the concept of organizational justice with regard to how an employee judges the behavior of the organization and the employee's resulting attitude and behaviour. For example, if a firm makes redundant half of the workers, an employee may feel a sense of injustice with a resulting change in attitude and a drop in productivity.

One way of thinking holds that the mental process of decision-making is rational: a formal process based on optimizing utility. Rational thinking and decision-making does not leave much room for emotions. In fact, emotions are often considered irrational occurrences that may distort reasoning.

Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about themselves and to maintain self-esteem. This motive becomes especially prominent in situations of threat, failure or blows to one's self-esteem. Self-enhancement involves a preference for positive over negative self-views. It is one of the three self-evaluation motives along with self-assessment and self-verification . Self-evaluation motives drive the process of self-regulation, that is, how people control and direct their own actions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappointment</span> Feeling of dissatisfaction following the failure of an expectation to manifest

Disappointment is the feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations or hopes to manifest. Similar to regret, it differs in that a person who feels regret focuses primarily on the personal choices that contributed to a poor outcome, while a person feeling disappointment focuses on the outcome itself. It is a source of psychological stress. The study of disappointment—its causes, impact, and the degree to which individual decisions are motivated by a desire to avoid it—is a focus in the field of decision analysis, as disappointment is, along with regret, one of two primary emotions involved in decision-making.

In decision theory, on making decisions under uncertainty—should information about the best course of action arrive after taking a fixed decision—the human emotional response of regret is often experienced, and can be measured as the value of difference between a made decision and the optimal decision.

Counterfactual thinking is a concept in psychology that involves the human tendency to create possible alternatives to life events that have already occurred; something that is contrary to what actually happened. Counterfactual thinking is, as it states: "counter to the facts". These thoughts consist of the "What if?" and the "If only..." that occur when thinking of how things could have turned out differently. Counterfactual thoughts include things that – in the present – could not have happened because they are dependent on events that did not occur in the past.

Overchoice or choice overload is the paradoxical phenomenon that choosing between a large variety of options can be detrimental to decision making processes. The term was first introduced by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book, Future Shock.

The framing effect is a cognitive bias in which people decide between options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations. Individuals have a tendency to make risk-avoidant choices when options are positively framed, while selecting more loss-avoidant options when presented with a negative frame. In studies of the bias, options are presented in terms of the probability of either losses or gains. While differently expressed, the options described are in effect identical. Gain and loss are defined in the scenario as descriptions of outcomes, for example, lives lost or saved, patients treated or not treated, monetary gains or losses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decision fatigue</span> Deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making

In decision making and psychology, decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. It is now understood as one of the causes of irrational trade-offs in decision making. Decision fatigue may also lead to consumers making poor choices with their purchases.

In psychology, prospection is the generation and evaluation of mental representations of possible futures. The term therefore captures a wide array of future-oriented psychological phenomena, including the prediction of future emotion, the imagination of future scenarios, and planning. Prospection is central to various aspects of human cognition and motivation. Daniel Gilbert (psychologist) and Timothy Wilson coined the term in 2007. It has since become a central area of enquiry in the cognitive sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naïve cynicism</span> Cognitive bias

Naïve cynicism is a philosophy of mind, cognitive bias and form of psychological egoism that occurs when people naïvely expect more egocentric bias in others than actually is the case.

Neal Roese holds the SC Johnson Chair in Global Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Trained as a social psychologist, he is most well known for his work on judgment and decision making, counterfactual thinking, and regret.

<i>The Top Five Regrets of the Dying</i> 2011 book by Bronnie Ware

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing is a 2011 book by Bronnie Ware inspired by her time as a palliative carer.

Action bias is the psychological phenomenon where people tend to favor action over inaction, even when there is no indication that doing so would point towards a better result. It is an automatic response, similar to a reflex or an impulse and is not based on rational thinking. One of the first appearances of the term "action bias" in scientific journals was in a 2000 paper by Patt and Zechenhauser titled "Action Bias and Environmental Decisions", where its relevance in politics was expounded.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Roese, N.J. (2005). "What We Regret Most...and Why". Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin. 31 (9): 1273–85. doi:10.1177/0146167205274693. PMC   2394712 . PMID   16055646.
  2. ↑ Zeelenberg M, Pieters R. A theory of regret regulation 1.0. J Consum Psychol. 2007;17(1):3–18.
  3. 1 2 McConnell, Terrance (2018), "Moral Dilemmas", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2019-07-03
  4. 1 2 Giorgetta, C; Grecucci, A; Bonini, N; Coricelli, G; Demarchi, G; Braun, C; Sanfey, AG (Jan 2013). "Waves of regret: a meg study of emotion and decision-making". Neuropsychologia. 51 (1): 38–51. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.10.015. PMID   23137945. S2CID   3092302.
  5. 1 2 Gilbert, Daniel T.; Morewedge, Carey K.; Risen, Jane L.; Wilson, Timothy D. (2004-05-01). "Looking Forward to Looking Backward The Misprediction of Regret". Psychological Science. 15 (5): 346–350. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.492.9980 . doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00681.x. ISSN   0956-7976. PMID   15102146. S2CID   748553.
  6. ↑ Sevdalis, Nick; Harvey, Nigel (2007-08-01). "Biased Forecasting of Postdecisional Affect". Psychological Science. 18 (8): 678–681. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01958.x. ISSN   0956-7976. PMID   17680936. S2CID   7524552.
  7. ↑ Dibonaventura, M; Chapman, GB (2008). "Do decision biases predict bad decisions? Omission bias, naturalness bias, and influenza vaccination". Med Decis Making. 28 (4): 532–9. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.670.2689 . doi:10.1177/0272989x08315250. PMID   18319507.
  8. ↑ Lucas, Marijo (January 2004). "Existential Regret: A Crossroads of Existential Anxiety and Existential Guilt". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 44 (1): 58–70. doi:10.1177/0022167803259752. S2CID   145228992.
  9. 1 2 Joseph-Williams, N; Edwards, A; Elwyn, G (2011). "The importance and complexity of regret in the measurement of 'good' decisions: a systematic review and a content analysis of existing assessment instruments". Health Expectations. 14 (1): 59–83. doi:10.1111/j.1369-7625.2010.00621.x. PMC   5060557 . PMID   20860776.
  10. ↑ Gilovich, T; Wang, RF; Regan, D; Nishina, S (2003). "Regrets of action and inaction across cultures". Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 34: 61–71. doi:10.1177/0022022102239155. S2CID   145252273.
  11. ↑ Margarita Becerra Pérez, Maria; Menear, Matthew; Brehaut, Jamie C.; Légaré, France (2016). "Extent and Predictors of Decision Regret about Health Care Decisions". Medical Decision Making. 36 (6): 777–790. doi:10.1177/0272989X16636113. PMID   26975351. S2CID   4575881.
  12. ↑ Davidai, Shai; Gilovich, Thomas (April 2018). "The ideal road not taken: The self-discrepancies involved in people's most enduring regrets" (PDF). Emotion. 18 (3): 439–452. doi:10.1037/emo0000326. PMID   28493750. S2CID   40051475 . Retrieved 31 January 2019. In her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Bonnie [sic] Ware, a palliative nurse, compiled the regrets most often expressed by patients nearing the ends of their lives (Ware, 2013). Although anecdotal, her observations are in line with our hypothesis. The most commonly cited regret mentioned by Ware's patients was, "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
  13. ↑ Pawlowski, Agnes (8 June 2018). "The most haunting regrets aren't about the things we've done, research finds". TODAY.com. NBC Universal. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  14. ↑ Ware, Bronnie (7 January 2018). "Regrets of the Dying". Bronnie Ware. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  15. ↑ Gilovich, T; Medvec, VH (1995). "The experience of regret: What, when, and why". Psychological Review. 102 (2): 379–395. doi:10.1037/0033-295x.102.2.379. PMID   7740094.
  16. ↑ Wrosch, C; Heckhausen, J (2002). "Perceived control of life regrets: Good for young and bad for old adults". Psychology and Aging. 17 (2): 340–350. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.17.2.340. PMID   12061416.
  17. ↑ Zeelenberg, M (1999). "The use of crying over spilled milk: A note on the rationality and functionality of regret" (PDF). Philosophical Psychology. 13 (951–5089): 326–340. doi:10.1080/095150899105800. S2CID   4644975.
  18. ↑ Roese, Neal J. (Jan 1997). "Counterfactual Thinking". Psychological Bulletin. 121 (1): 133–148. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.121.1.133. PMID   9000895.
  19. ↑ Beike, Denise (December 19, 2008). "What We Regret Most Are Lost Opportunities: A Theory of Regret Intensity". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 35 (3): 385–397. doi:10.1177/0146167208328329. PMID   19098259. S2CID   206443603.
  20. ↑ Beike, Denise; Wirth-Beaumont, Erin (2005). "Psychological closure as a memory phenomenon". Memory. 13 (6): 574–593. doi:10.1080/09658210444000241. PMID   16076673. S2CID   25177752.
  21. ↑ "Living with regret: How to get over regret and seize the day". Human Growth Lab. 2020-01-16. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  22. ↑ Coricelli, G; Critchley, HD; Joffily, M; O'Doherty, JP; Sirigu, A; Dolan, RJ (2007). "Regret and its avoidance: a neuroimaging study of choice behavior". Nat Neurosci. 8 (9): 1255–62. doi:10.1038/nn1514. hdl: 21.11116/0000-0001-A327-B . PMID   16116457. S2CID   9893530.
  23. ↑ Coricelli, G; Dolan, RJ; Sirigu, A (2007). "Brain, emotion and decision making: the paradigmatic example of regret". Trends Cogn Sci. 11 (6): 258–65. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2007.04.003. hdl: 21.11116/0000-0001-A325-D . PMID   17475537. S2CID   5626551.
  24. ↑ Chua HF1, Gonzalez R; Taylor, SF; Welsh, RC; Liberzon, I (Oct 2009). "Decision-related loss: regret and disappointment". NeuroImage. 47 (4): 2031–40. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.006. PMID   19524050. S2CID   16765820.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. ↑ Baskin-Sommers, A; Stuppy-Sullivan, AM; Buckholtz, JW (2016). "Psychopathic individuals exhibit but do not avoid regret during counterfactual decision making". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 113 (50): 14438–14443. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1609985113 . PMC   5167137 . PMID   27911790.
  26. ↑ Steiner, Adam P; Redish, A David (2014-06-08). "Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of regret in rat decision-making on a neuroeconomic task". Nature Neuroscience. 17 (7): 995–1002. doi:10.1038/nn.3740. ISSN   1546-1726. PMC   4113023 . PMID   24908102.
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