Regret (emotion): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:55, 20 April 2025

Psychology
- Regret

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

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

In Western societies, adults often have the highest regrets about their educational choices.

Definition

Psychologists in the late 1990s defined regret as a "negative emotion predicated on an upward, self-focused, counterfactual inference." Another definition is "an aversive emotional state elicited by a discrepancy in the outcome values of chosen versus unchosen actions."

Regret differs from remorse in that people can regret things beyond their control, but remorse indicates a sense of responsibility for the situation. 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 remorseful 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. 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 related to a lost outcome, and both share similar neuronal correlates. However, they differ in their feedback about the outcome, comparing the differences between the chosen and unchosen actions. In regret, full feedback occurs, while in disappointment, only partial feedback is provided. They also differ in terms of agency: self-regret versus external disappointment.

Models

There are conceptual models of regret in decision theory, primarily in theoretical economics and finance, within the field known as behavioral economics. Anticipated regret, which refers to the level of regret one believes they will feel in the future, appears to be overestimated concerning actions and choices. This tendency seems to stem, in part, from an underestimation of how much individuals attribute bad outcomes to external factors rather than to themselves. This misperception can result in inaction or inertia and the phenomenon of omission bias.

Existential regret is 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".

Instruments for measuring regret in people making medical decisions have not addressed current concepts of regret and have failed to distinguish regret from disappointment. Additionally, they have not explored the positive impacts of regret. Process regret may occur if a person does not consider all available information before making a decision.

People will go out of their way to avoid regret, a phenomenon known as regret aversion. This can influence the decisions one makes. However, many will go to extreme lengths to evade feeling regret. In the book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, numerous topics relate to regret. System one and system two thinking refer to different cognitive processes that explain how people think. System one thinking is quicker and requires less mental effort, while system two thinking is slower and demands more cognitive effort. In both systems, the desire to avoid regret and other negative emotions is evident in the way decisions are made and how people think.

Loss aversion is a component of regret and regret aversion, stemming from the effort individuals exert to avoid losing something. It is often believed that the emotional impact of losing something is more intense than that of gaining something. However, this may not always be the case. In 2020, a study published by three researchers in the Department of Psychology at King's College London investigated loss aversion and its potential influence on decision-making. The study indicates that loss aversion may not hold true in all circumstances and experiences.

See also [ Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions ]

Emotions