What Makes for the Most Intense Regrets? Comparing the Effects of Several Theoretical Predictors of Regret Intensity

Abstract

Several theories have been proposed to account for variation in the intensity of life regrets. Variables hypothesized to affect the intensity of regret include: whether the regretted decision was an action or an inaction, the degree to which the decision was justified, and the life domain of the regret. No previous study has compared the effects of these key predictors in a single model in order to identify which are most strongly associated with the intensity of life regret. In this study, respondents (N = 500) to a postal survey answered questions concerning the nature of their greatest life regret. A Bayesian regression analysis suggested that regret intensity was greater for—in order of importance—decisions that breached participants’ personal life rules, decisions in social life domains than non-social domains, and decisions that lacked an explicit justification. Although regrets of inaction were more frequent than regrets of action, regrets relating to actions were slightly more intense.

The Functional Theory of Counterfactual Thinking: New Evidence, New Challenges, New Insights

“…They found that the most intense life regrets reflect the core motive of affiliation, for example love regrets, friendship regrets, and regrets about not phoning mom last week. Regrets relating either to affiliation or achievement dominated over other kinds of life regrets, but affiliation regrets were felt more intensely than achievement regrets (see Towers, Williams, Hill, Philipp, & Flett (2016) for further supportive evidence). In probing this pattern further, Morrison et al found that when people felt threatened by life circumstances that challenged their relationships, they reported more intense life regrets.…”

Regulating regret via decreasing goal level: Comparing maximizers and satisficers

“…According to Decision Justification Theory, individuals tend to experience more intense regret when they do not see their decision as justifiable (Connolly & Zeelenberg, 2002). In fact, many studies have shown a negative relationship between the level of justification and regret intensity (Inman & Zeelenberg, 2002;Pieters & Zeelenberg, 2005;Reb & Connolly, 2010;Towers et al, 2016). Hence, compared to satisficers, maximizers' decisions might reflect a more cautious, reflective, or justifiable process, which theoretically should lead to less regrettable decisions.…”

Exceptionality Effect in Agency Attributions: Exceptional Behaviors are Perceived as Higher Free will than Routine Behaviors

“…All measures were on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 7 = completely). Regret attributions were measured first with one item adapted from Towers et al (2016) Clark et al (2018): 'Indicate how much Mr. Smith decision to take this route was freely chosen', 'Indicate how much Mr. Smith could have made other choices', and 'Indicate how much the fact that Mr. Smith took this route was due to his own free choice'. We averaged the three items measuring free will attributions (α = 0.73 and 0.83, for the routine and exceptional condition, respectively).…”