Why are errors of omission regretted more than errors of commission in the distant past, whereas the reverse is true for the near past? The authors hypothesized that abstract versus concrete representation is a significant contributor to this effect. In Study 1, the authors assessed participants' regret for errors of commission versus omission occurring in the distant versus near past while measuring the level of abstraction at which participants spontaneously described the dilemma. As predicted, participants' greater regret for errors of omission (vs. commission) in the distant term (vs. near term) was mediated by level of abstraction. In Study 2, temporal distance, level of abstraction, and error type were all independently manipulated. As expected, participants reported more regret for an error of omission in the distant past when it was represented abstractly versus concretely. The authors discuss the role of mental abstraction in the phenomenology of binary decisions and error-related regret.
Anderson, J.R. & Reder, L.M. (1999). The fan effect: New results and new theories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 186-197.
2.
Bar-Anan, Y., Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2006). The association between psychological distance and construal level: Evidence from an implicit association test. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 609-622.
3.
Byrne, R.M.J., & McEleney, A. (2000). Counterfactual thinking about actions and failures to act. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1318-1331.
4.
Day, S.B., & Bartels, D.M. (2004). Temporal distance, event representation, and similarity . In Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 274-278). Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
5.
Day, S.B., & Bartels, D.M. (2006). Representation across time: Generalizing temporal effects on perceived similarity. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 274-278). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
6.
Feldman, J., Miyamoto, J., & Loftus, E.F. (1999). Are actions regretted more than inactions? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 78, 232-255.
7.
Freitas, A.L., Gollwitzer, P.M., & Trope, Y. (2004). The influence of abstract and concrete mindsets on anticipating and guiding others' self-regulatory efforts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 739-752.
8.
Fujita, K., Henderson, M.D., Eng, J., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2006). Spatial distance and mental construal of social events. Psychological Science, 17, 278-282.
9.
Fujita, K., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Levin-Sagi, M. (2006). Construal levels and self-control . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 351-367.
10.
Gilovich, T., & Medvec, V.H. (1994). The temporal pattern to the experience of regret . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 357-365.
11.
Gilovich, T., & Medvec, V.H. (1995). The experience of regret: What, when, and why . Psychological Review, 102, 379-395.
12.
Gilovich, T., Medvec, V.H., & Chen, S. (1995). Commission, omission, and dissonance reduction: Coping with regret in the "Monty Hall" problem. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 182-190.
13.
Gilovich, T., Medvec, V.H., & Kahneman, D. (1998). Varieties of regret: A debate and partial resolution . Psychological Review, 105, 602-605.
14.
Gleicher, F., Kost, K.A., Baker, S.M., Strathman, A.J., Richman, S.A., & Sherman, S.J. (1990). The role of counterfactual thinking in judgments of affect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 284-295.
15.
Hattiangadi, N., Medvec, V.H., & Gilovich, T. (1995). Failing to act: Regrets of Terman's geniuses. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 40, 175-185.
16.
Hetts, J.J., Boninger, D.S., Armor, D.A., Gleicher, F., & Nathanson, A. (2000). The influence of anticipated counterfactual regret on behavior. Psychology & Marketing, 17, 345-368.
17.
Kahneman, D. (1995). Varieties of counterfactual thinking. In N. J. Roese & J. M. Olson (Eds.), What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 375-396). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
18.
Kahneman, D., & Miller, D.T. (1986). Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives . Psychological Review, 93, 136-153.
19.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1982). The psychology of preferences. Scientific American, 246, 160-173.
20.
Landman, J. (1987). Regret and elation following action and inaction: Affective responses to positive versus negative outcomes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 13, 524-536.
21.
Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (1998). The role of feasibility and desirability consideration in near and distant future decisions: A test of temporal construal theory . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 5-18.
22.
N'gbala, A., & Branscombe, N. (1997). When does action elicit more regret than inaction and is counterfactual mutation the mediator of this effect? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 324-343.
23.
Rajagopal, P., Raju, S., & Unnava, H.R. (2006). Differences in the cognitive accessibility of action and inaction regrets. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 302-313.
24.
Sagristano, M.D., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2002). Time-dependent gambling: Odds now, money later . Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 364-376.
25.
Savitsky, K., Medvec, V.H., & Gilovich, T. (1997). Remembering and regretting: The Zeigarnik effect and the cognitive availability of regrettable actions and inactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 248-258.
26.
Semin, G.R., & Fiedler, K. (1988). The cognitive functions of linguistic categories in describing persons: Social cognition and language. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 558-568.
27.
Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2000). Temporal construal and time-dependent changes in preference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 79, 876-889.
Vallacher, R.R., & Wegner, D.M. (1989). Levels of personal agency: Individual variation in action identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 660-671.
