Once bitten, twice shy: experienced regret and non-adaptive choice switching

PeerJ

Donatella Ferrante¹  Anna Cosulich¹  Francesco Marcatto¹ 

[1] Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy;

关键词: Regret;    Decision-making;    Choice switching;    Disappointment;    Decision bias;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.1035

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

When a good decision leads to a bad outcome, the experience of regret can bias subsequent choices: people are less likely to select the regret-producing alternative a second time, even when it is still objectively the best alternative (non-adaptive choice switching). The first study presented herein showed that nearly half of participants experiencing regret rejected a previous alternative they had recognized as the best one, and chose a non-optimal alternative instead. The second study investigated the mechanism underlying this bias, and results supported the hypothesis that this non-adaptive choice switching is caused by inhibition of the previous decision (direct effect of experienced regret), rather than by increased sensitivity to anticipated regret in subsequent choices (indirect effect of experienced regret mediated by anticipated regret).

【 授权许可】

Unknown