1999/06/01 by Marcel Zeelenberg · 6 citations
Decision Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Economic and Environmental Valuation #Forecasting Techniques and Applications
paper · doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0771(199906)12:2<93::aid-bdm311>3.0.co;2-s
openalex publication_date 1999/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
This paper addresses the effects of the anticipation of regret on decision making under uncertainty. Regret is a negative, cognitively based emotion that we experience when realizing or imagining that our present situation would have been better, had we decided differently. The experience of post-decisional regret is for a large part conditional on the knowledge of the outcomes of the rejected alternatives. A series of studies is reviewed in which it is shown that whether or not decision makers expect post-decisional feedback on rejected alternatives has a profound influence on the decisions they make. These studies, focusing on choice between gambles, consumer decision making and interpersonal decision making, also show that anticipated regret can promote risk-averse as well as risk-seeking choices. This review of empirical studies is followed by a discussion of the conditions under which we can expect the anticipation of regret to take place. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.