The development of children's regret and relief

Abstract

Previous research found that children first experience regret at 5 years and relief at 7. In two experiments, we explored three possibilities for this lag: (1) relief genuinely develops later than regret; (2) tests of relief have previously been artefactually difficult; or (3) evidence for regret resulted from false positives. In Experiment 1 (N=162 4- to 7-year-olds) children chose one of two cards that led to winning or losing tokens. Children rated their happiness then saw a better (regret) or worse (relief) alternative. Children re-rated their happiness. Regret after winning was first experienced at 4, regret after losing and relief after winning were experienced at 5 years and relief after losing at 7 years. Experiment 2 (N=297 5- to 8-year-olds) used a similar task but manipulated children's responsibility for the outcome. Greater responsibility for the outcome resulted in a greater likelihood of an experience of regret and relief. Results support that previous tests of relief were artefactually difficult and regret and relief are experienced earlier than previously thought.

Regret and adaptive decision making in young children

“…To address the first question, we manipulated children's likely perceptions of their own responsibility for causing the outcome. Although we did not find a significant main effect of our manipulation, the findings were similar to Weisberg and Beck's (2012) findings insofar as children who made a choice (Self condition) were more likely to feel sadder on discovering that they could have won a better prize than those who had the outcome determined by the experimenter's die throw (Dice-Other condition). However, the findings differed from Weisberg and Beck's findings in that in the Dice-Other condition, although only a minority of children reported feeling sadder, they did so significantly more often than chance.…”

“…Recently, the developmental psychology of regret has received considerable attention (Burns, Riggs, & Beck, 2012;O'Connor, McCormack, & Feeney, 2012Rafetseder & Perner, 2012; van Duijvenvoorde, Huizenga, & Jansen, 2014;Weisberg & Beck, 2010;Weisberg & Beck, 2012). In a typical study, O'Connor and colleagues (2012) presented children with a choice between two boxes.…”

“…Weisberg and Beck (2012) argued that if the emotion measured in this type of study is indeed regret, it should be affected by the level of responsibility one has regarding the outcome because, at least among psychologists, responsibility for an outcome is usually considered to be a necessary condition for regret (Zeelenberg, van Dijk, & Manstead, 2000). In a study of regret using a similar box choice task, Weisberg and Beck (2012) manipulated the extent to which children perceived themselves to be responsible for the choice; the outcome was determined by the child's choice or the roll of a die. In that study, 6-and 7-year-olds felt sadder when they had chosen the box compared with conditions involving a die, suggesting that the negative emotion that they reported was regret.…”

“…The first is whether children's decisions on Day 2 in O'Connor and colleagues' (2014) study were really a result of experiencing regret on Day 1 rather than a consequence of some other negative emotion such as frustration (Rafetseder & Perner, 2012). Weisberg and Beck (2012) argued that if the emotion measured in this type of study is indeed regret, it should be affected by the level of responsibility one has regarding the outcome because, at least among psychologists, responsibility for an outcome is usually considered to be a necessary condition for regret (Zeelenberg, van Dijk, & Manstead, 2000). In a study of regret using a similar box choice task, Weisberg and Beck (2012) manipulated the extent to which children perceived themselves to be responsible for the choice; the outcome was determined by the child's choice or the roll of a die.…”

Associations between circadian and stress response cortisol in children

“…Furthermore, at this age impression management/self-presentation is used (first seen in 5-year-olds; Engelmann et al, 2012) and feelings of relief and regret develop (between age 4 and 7; Weisberg & Beck, 2012). Hence, assumingly at this age children become more exposed and sensitive to social evaluative stressors that can trigger a cortisol stress response (Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004).…”