Abstract
Behavioral research over the past 15 years has confirmed what anyone
who has purchased a house or dumped a significant other could tell
you: When people make decisions, they anticipate that they may regret
their choices. It is important that we maintain this ability, because
as the aforementioned house-buyers and spouse-dumpers know, regret
can be a terrible feeling.
How accurate are people in their anticipations of regret – and of
other post-decisional emotions, such as disappointment" It is a topic
has been rather neglected by scientists, but new research published
in the August issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association
for Psychological Science, aims to fill this gap.
In the first of two experiments, participants took part in a two-person
negotiation for money that would allow the researchers to observe
negotiation style as well as measure how much regret the participants
would feel if their tactics failed. The researchers found that participants
across the board tended to over-predict their post-negotiation regret
and disappointment if their transaction was rejected. However, those
who negotiated reasonably (i.e., less aggressive or “greedy”) were
less prone to experience regret than the latter, as they had provided
sensible offers.
In the second experiment, participants who had just completed a course
assignment were asked to predict how they would feel if the grades
that they received for their assignments exceeded, matched, or were
lower than their expectations. On average, participants received
higher than expected grades. However, the researchers found that
participants over-predicted the rejoicing and somewhat under-predicted
the regret that they experienced when they received the grades.
In the light of such misprediction of emotions, Nick Sevdalis and
Nigel Harvey — the University College London researchers who authored
the study — argue that when people make decisions they should perhaps
discount the regret, rejoicing, and other post-decisional emotions
that they anticipate will be associated with potential outcomes arising
from those decisions.
###
Author Contact: Nick Sevdalis n.sevdalis@imperial.ac.uk
Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10 general psychology
journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information.
For a copy of the article “Biased Forecasting of Postdecisional Affect”
and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please
contact Jesse Erwin at (202) 783-2077 or jerwin@psychologicalscience.org.
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MBA_Decision_Making
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