The Bidirectional Relation Between Counterfactual Thinking and Closeness, Controllability, and Exceptionality.

ABSTRACT: In four experiments, we explored the inferences people make when they learn that counterfactual thinking has occurred. Experiment 1 (N = 40) showed that knowing that a protagonist had engaged in counterfactual thinking (compared to no counterfactual thinking) resulted in participants inferring that the past event was closer in time to the protagonist, but there was no difference in inferring how close the past event was between knowing that a protagonist made many or a single counterfactual statement(s). Experiment 2 (N = 80) confirmed that participants were not affected by the number of counterfactual statements they read when inferring temporal closeness. Experiment 3 (N = 49) demonstrated that participants who learned that a protagonist had engaged in counterfactual

SUBMITTER: Xie Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8959919 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature