Past and future regret and missed opportunities: an experimental approach on separate evaluation and different time frames

Abstract

Decisions often imply trade-offs that force people to accept missing an opportunity in the past or in the future. However, it is not fully clear whether a past miss or a future miss elicits more regret. In a direct comparison, previous research had found support for the greater impact of future misses. In an experimental study with 216 participants, we replicated and extended previous research by testing the strength of the future miss in a separate evaluation and with different periods. Results show that, when evaluated separately, future misses caused less regret than past misses. However, future misses made participants change their feelings of regret more intensely than past misses did. Also, regret levels did not decrease when future misses were further away. Our findings support the strength of future misses on regret but also show contrasting effects when evaluated separately.

"Regrets for leaving the 'zoo'?": Regret construction strategies in the online discourses of Nigerian migrants

“…This is analysed with samples below. Regret is an emotion that occurs when a person is thinking about how a current situation would have been better if a different decision had been taken (Pape and Martinez, 2017). In line with this submission, Nigerian migrants express their regrets about first leaving Nigeria and later returning to the country by implicating that it would have been better for them if they did not decide between returning to Nigeria.…”

The use of the Decision Regret Scale in non-clinical contexts

“…Indeed, research has revealed that there is a propensity to have emotional reactions to situations for which an alternative result is simpler to envision, a process known as emotional amplification (Kahneman and Miller, 1986). The most essential criteria for the development of regret, according to 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.945669 research, are the proximity of the alternative result, the actionnon-action component, and the impression of responsibility (Zeelenberg et al, 1998;Byrne and McEleney, 2000;Papé and Martinez, 2017). According to Miller and Taylor (1995), emotions such as regret arise not only when the negative outcome is due to inappropriate or irrational decisions or actions, but whenever there is a counterfactual alternative to one's actions that is highly available, such as in situations in which one came very close to obtaining a better outcome.…”