Regulatory mode effects on counterfactual thinking and regret

By Antonio Pierro, Susanne Leder, L. Mannetti, E. Tory Higgins, Arie W. Kruglanski, A. Aiello. 2008

118 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The present studies examined the influence of two regulatory mode concerns—a locomotion concern with movement from state to state and an assessment concern with making comparisons [see Higgins, E. T., Kruglanski, A. W., & Pierro, A. (2003). Regulatory mode: Locomotion and assessment as distinct orientations. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 35, pp. 293–344). New York: Academic Press]—on engaging in counterfactual thinking and experiencing post-decisional regret. When contemplating a decision with a negative outcome, it was predicted that high (vs. low) locomotion would induce less counterfactual thinking and less regret, whereas the opposite would be true for high (vs. low) assessment. Locomotion and assessment orientations were measured as chronic individual differences in Study 1 and 2, and were induced experimentally in Study 3. In Study 1 and 3 a purchase scenario with a negative outcome was used to elicit counterfactuals and regret, while in Study 2 participants were asked to recall one of their own personal purchases that had a negative outcome. The results supported our predictions. We discuss the implications of these findings for the nature of counterfactual thinking and regret from the perspective of their relation to regulatory mode.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, General Decision Sciences, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f3234252177dfe0ec789b73826762182bbbac730

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

1. E. Tory Higgins
2. Antonio Pierro
3. Arie W. Kruglanski
4. T. Avnet
5. Michel Tuan Pham
6. Ayelet Fishbach
7. Angela Y. Lee
8. Joseph Cesario

In General Decision Sciences

1. Arie W. Kruglanski
2. Antonio Pierro
3. E. Tory Higgins
4. Michel Tuan Pham
5. T. Avnet
6. Angela Y. Lee
7. Joseph Cesario
8. Abigail A. Scholer

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Arie W. Kruglanski
2. E. Tory Higgins
3. Antonio Pierro
4. Michel Tuan Pham
5. T. Avnet
6. John T. Jost
7. Francis J. Flynn
8. Lily Benjamin

Citations in the corpus

• Regulatory mode orientations and well‐being in an organizational setting: the differential mediating roles of workaholism and work engagement (2014, background): “Locomotion and assessment are theoretically and empirically orthogonal, with studies reporting either no correlation between the two dimensions or modest relationships at most (e.g., Pierro, Presaghi, Higgins, Klein, & Kruglanski, 2011b; Pierro et al., 2008).”