Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Regret aversion in reason-based choice

  • Published:
Theory and Decision Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This research examines the moderating role of regret aversion in reason-based choice. Earlier research has shown that regret aversion and reason-based choice effects are linked through a common emphasis on decision justification, and that a simple manipulation of regret salience can eliminate the decoy effect, a well-known reason-based choice effect. We show here that the effect of regret salience varies in theory-relevant ways from one reason-based choice effect to another. For effects such as the select/reject and decoy effect, both of which were independently judged to be unreasonable bases for deciding, regret salience eliminated the effect. For the most-important attribute effect that is judged to be normatively acceptable, however, regret salience amplified the effect. Anticipated self-blame regret and perceived decision justifiability consistently predicted preferences and thus offer a parsimonious account of both attenuation and amplification of these reason-based choice effects.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Barber B. M., Heath C., Odean T. (2003) Good reasons sell: Reason-based choice among group and individual investors in the stock market. Management Science, 49: 1636–1652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron J., Ritov I. (1994) Reference points and omission bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 59: 475–498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell D. E. (1982) Regret in decision making under uncertainty. Operations Research 30: 961–981

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell D. E. (1985) Disappointment in decision making under uncertainty. Operations Research 33: 1–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bleichrodt H., Cillo A., Diecidue E. (2010) A quantitative measurement of regret theory. Management Science 56: 161–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly T., Butler D. (2006) Regret in economic and psychological theories of choice. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 19: 139–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly T., Ordóñez L. D., Coughlan R. (1997) Regret and responsibility in the evaluation of decision outcomes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 70: 73–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly T., Reb J. (2003) Omission bias in vaccination decisions: Where’s the ‘omission’? Where’s the ‘bias’?. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 91: 186–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly T., Reb J. (2005) Regret in cancer-related decisions. Health Psychology 24: S29–S34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, T., Reb, J., & Kausel, E. (2010). Intuitive politicians or intuitive penitents? Regret aversion, accountability and justification in the decoy effect. Working paper, University of Arizona.

  • Connolly T., Zeelenberg M. (2002) Regret in decision making. Current Directions in Psychological Science 11: 212–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coricelli G., Dolan R. J., Sirigu A. (2007) Brain, emotion and decision making: The paradigmatic example of regret. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11: 258–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damasio A. R. (1994) Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. Grosset/Putnam, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Elster J. (1996) Rationality and the emotions. Economic Journal 106: 1386–1397

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert D. T., Morewedge C. K., Risen J. L., Wilson T. D. (2004) Looking forward to looking backward: The misprediction of regret. Psychological Science 15: 346–350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilovich T., Medvec V. H. (1995) The experience of regret: What, when, and why. Psychological Review 102: 379–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Highhouse S. (1996) Context-dependent selection: The effects of decoy and phantom job candidates. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 65: 68–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huber J., Payne J. W., Puto C. (1982) Adding asymmetrically dominated alternatives: Violations of regularity and the similarity hypothesis. Journal of Consumer Reseach 9: 90–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inman J. J., Zeelenberg M. (2002) Regret repeat versus switch decisions: The attenuating role of decision justifiability. Journal of Consumer Research 29: 116–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irons B., Hepburn C. (2007) Regret theory and the tyranny of choice. Economic Record 83: 191–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isen A. M. (1993) Positive affect and decision making. In: Lewis M., Haviland J. M. (eds) Handbook of emotions. Guilford Press, New York, pp 261–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Janis I. L., Mann L. (1977) Decision making. Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman D., Tversky A. (1982) The psychology of preferences. Scientific American 246: 160–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kugler T., Connolly T., Kausel E. E. (2009) The effects of consequential thinking on trust game behavior. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 22: 101–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner J. S., Tetlock P. E. (1999) Accounting for the effects of accountability. Psychological Bulletin 125: 255–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loewenstein G. F. (1996) Out of control: Visceral influences on behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 65: 272–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loewenstein G. F., Weber E. U., Hsee C. K., Welch N. (2001) Risk as Feelings. Psychological Bulletin 127: 267–286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loomes G., Starmer C., Sugden R. (1991) Observing violations of transitivity by experimental methods. Econometrica 59: 425–439

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loomes G., Sugden R. (1982) Regret Theory: An alternative theory of rational choice under uncertainty. Economic Journal 92: 805–824

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loomes G., Sugden R. (1986) Disappointment and dynamic inconsistency in choice under uncertainty. Review of Economic Studies 53: 271–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mercier H., Sperber D. (2011) Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34: 57–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery H. (1983) Decision rules and the search for a dominance structure: Towards a process model of decision making. In: Humphreys P., Svenson O., Vari A. (eds) Analyzing and Aiding Decision Processes. North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp 363–390

    Google Scholar 

  • Ordóñez L. D., Connolly T. (2000) Regret and responsibility: A reply to Zeelenberg et al. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 81: 132–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ortmann A., Hertwig R. (2002) The costs of deception: Evidence from psychology. Experimental Economics 5: 111–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ozerol G., Karasakal E. (2008) A parallel between regret theory and outranking methods for multicriteria decision making under imprecise information. Theory and Decision 65: 45–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pettibone J. C., Wedell D. H. (2000) Examining models of nondominated decoy effects across judgment and choice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 81: 300–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabin M. (2002) A perspective on psychology and economics. European Economic Review 46: 657–685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reb J. (2008) Regret aversion and decision process quality: Effects of regret salience on decision process carefulness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 105: 169–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reb J., Connolly T. (2009) Myopic regret avoidance in repeated decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 109: 182–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reb J., Connolly T. (2010) The effects of action, normality, and decision carefulness on anticipated regret: Evidence for a broad mediating role of decision justifiability. Cognition and Emotion 24: 1405–1420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritov I., Baron J. (1990) Reluctance to vaccinate: Omission bias and ambiguity. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 3: 263–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritov I., Baron J. (1992) Status-quo and omission biases. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 5: 49–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seta J. J., McElroy T., Seta C. E. (2001) To do or not to do: Desirability and consistency mediate judgments of regret. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80: 861–870

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shafir E. (1993) Choosing versus rejecting: Why some options are both better and worse than others. Memory & Cognition 21: 546–556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shafir E., Simonson I., Tversky A. (1993) Reason-based choice. Cognition 49: 11–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonson I (1989) Choice based on reasons: The case of attraction and compromise effects. Journal of Consumer Research 16: 158–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonson I. (1992) The influence of anticipating regret and responsibility on purchase decisions. Journal of Consumer Research 19: 105–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonson I., Tversky A. (1992) Choice in context: Tradeoff contrast and extremeness aversion. Journal of Marketing Research 29: 281–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter J. E., Sinar E. F., Highhouse S. (1999) Decoy effects and attribute-level inferences. Journal of Applied Psychology. 84: 823–828

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slovic P. (1975) Choice between equally-valued alternatives. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1: 280–287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slovic P., Finucane M., Peters E., MacGregor D. G. (2002) The affect heuristic. In: Gilovich T., Griffin D., Kahneman D. (eds) Intuitive judgment: Heuristics and biases. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Slovic P., Fischhoff B., Lichtenstein S. (1976) Cognitive processes and societal risk taking. In: Carroll J.S., Payne J.W. (eds) Cognition and social behavior. Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum

    Google Scholar 

  • Tversky A. (1972) Elimination by aspects: A theory of choice. Psychological Review 79: 281–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeelenberg M. (1999) The use of crying over spilled milk: A note on the rationality and functionality of regret. Philosophical Psychology 12: 325–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeelenberg M., van den Bos K., van Dijk E., Pieters R. (2002) The inaction effect in the psychology of regret. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82: 314–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Eller College, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Terry Connolly

  2. Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore

    Jochen Reb

Authors
  1. Terry Connolly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jochen Reb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Terry Connolly.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Connolly, T., Reb, J. Regret aversion in reason-based choice. Theory Decis 73, 35–51 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-011-9269-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-011-9269-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation