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

ABSTRACT: 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 eff

SUBMITTER: Marcatto F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4476096 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature