The Experience of Regret: What, When, and Why

9319558吉洛维奇摘要先前的研究表明，人们对因采取行动而产生的负面结果的后悔，多于对因已采取行动而产生的相同结果的后悔。例如，卖出股票买另一只股票而赔钱的人，被认为比那些考虑转换但仍持有当前股票的人更后悔。尽管这看起来很有说服力，但它与日常生活中的一个观察结果相冲突：当人们描述他们最后悔的事情时，他们的后悔往往集中在他们没有做的事情上。本研究的目的是通过将日常观察与前人的研究结果相结合，进一步加深我们对后悔的理解。这项研究有三个目标。第一个是验证日常观察。事实上，遗漏是人们生活中最大的遗憾吗？一系列有组织的访谈将确定人们生活中最常见的遗憾。第二个目标紧随第一个目标。如果人们最大的遗憾与他们在生活中未能做到的事情有关，我们如何解释之前的研究证明了相反的结果？这项研究将探索后悔体验是否存在一个系统的时间进程：人们在短期内更后悔自己的不幸行为(正如目前的研究所表明的那样)，但从长远来看(正如日常经验所表明的)，人们更后悔自己不幸的不作为。将对所提出的时间模式进行实验测试。第三个目标是理解为什么这种时间模式可能存在。特别是，一系列的实验室实验将检验：1)为什么对行动的后悔往往会随着时间的推移而减少，2)为什么对不作为的后悔往往会随着时间的推移而加剧，以及3)为什么从长远来看，我们更容易从认知上理解我们的不作为。通过加深我们对后悔的理解，这项研究有望改善日常判断和决策。此外，对潜在机制的考察应该扩大我们对基本社会心理现象的认识，如决策后不和谐的减少、主观自信和反事实思维。

9319558 GILOVICH ABSTRACT Previous research indicates that people experience more regret over negative outcomes that stem from actions taken than over identical outcomes that stem from actions foregone. For example, someone who loses money by selling stocks to buy another one is believed to regret the loss more than someone who thinks about switching but hangs onto his or her current stock. As compelling as this might seem, it conflicts with an observation from everyday life: when people describe what they regret most, their regrets often center around things they failed to do. The purpose of this research is to further our understanding of regret by reconciling everyday observation with the results of previous research. The research has three objectives. The first is to verify everyday observation. Do omissions in fact predominate in the biggest regrets of people's lives? A series of structured interviews will ascertain the most common regrets in people's lives. The second objective follows from the first. If people's biggest regrets involve things they failed to do in their lives, how can we account for previous research that demonstrates the opposite result? This research will explore whether there is a systematic time course to the experience of regret: people regret their unfortunate actions more in the short term (as current research suggests), but their unfortunate inactions more in the long run (as everyday experience suggests). An experimental test of this proposed temporal pattern will be conducted. The third objective is to understand why this temporal pattern might exist. In particular, a series of laboratory experiments will examine: 1) why regret over action tends to diminish with time, 2) why regret over inaction tends to intensify with time, and 3) why our regrettable inactions remain more cognitively available to us in the long run. By furthering our understanding of the regret, this research promises to improv e everyday judgement and decision making. In addition, the examination of underlying mechanisms should expand our knowledge of basic social psychological phenomena such as post-decision dissonance reduction, subjective confidence, and counterfactual thinking.