Regret and Disappointment
Gracie
Campos
California
State University, Fullerton
Psychology 305
Introduction
Two
emotions that people experience daily are regret and disappointment. Rejoicing or regret may occur when a
decision causes an outcome that is positive or negative. The hypothesis tested in the present study
is that the terms regret and
disappointment are used interchangeably regardless of the situation.
Zeelenberg,
van Dijk, van der Pligt, Manstead, van Empelen, and Reinderman (1998b)
conducted an experiment where participants read a scenario which had negative
results. The experiment had three
conditions. The participants in the
first condition wrote what they would have done differently, while participants
in the second condition wrote how they would have changed the situation. The group that changed their actions rated
the amount of regret they felt, and the participants that changed the situation
of the second condition, rated their disappointment. The results showed that regret and disappointment were rated
similarly. In the third condition, the
participants were to rate both regret and disappointment. The results found that those who mutated
their actions felt more regret, while those who mutated the situation
experienced more disappointment than regret (Zeelenberg, van Dijk, van der
Pligt, et. Al., 1998a).
According
to Zeelenberg, et. Al. (1998b), disappointment is the most frequently
experienced, followed by regret. Yet,
Zeelenberg, et. al. (1998b) question if disappointment and regret are two
distinct emotions or if they are simply two names for the same emotion.
The
theory behind regret and disappointment is that these emotions are experienced
due to the consequence of decision. Regret
is caused by a decision one has made and if the decider had chosen differently
a different consequence would have been experienced. Disappointment occurs when the consequence could not have been
changed, but is instead produced by the outcome rather than the decision
(Zeelenberg, et. al., 1998b).
The
disappointment theory states that when a subject is considering a risky action,
he or she will form a prior expectation of the payoff, and if the outcome is
worse than expected, he or she will experience the emotion called
disappointment. If the outcome exceeds
expectation, the emotion is called elation (Kelsey & Schepanski, 1991).
The
regret theory states that if the outcome is worse than what was predicted, the
subject experiences regret. If the outcome
is better than what was predicted, rejoice is experienced (Kelsey &
Schepanski, 1991). A main point of the
regret theory is that it is caused by the person’s own decision (Roseman,
Antoniou, & Jose, 1996).
This
study attempts to distinguish one’s own decision (self) from that of an advisor
(world) to see if regret is experienced more when a person goes against advice
and the consequence is negative.
Method
Instructions
The
web site directed participants to “Imagine that you are interested in purchasing
100 shares of stock of either stock A or stock B. A friend suggests which one you should purchase and you make the
following decision. Rate the amount of
regret or rejoicing and disappointment or elation you feel after finding out
the outcome of your purchase. If you
feel neither regret nor rejoice or disappointment nor elation, click on the
center button.” The complete
instructions can be viewed at http://psych.fullerton.edu/psych305/students/gc/emotions.htm
(Campos, 2000).
Sample
scenarios are “Advisor says B, you bought A, A paid $200, while B paid
$50. Rate the amount of regret or
rejoicing you feel” or “Advisor says A, you bought A, A paid $40, B paid $200. Rate the amount of disappointment or elation
you feel.”
Response Scales
The
scenarios ask the participants either to “rate the amount of disappointment or
elation you feel” or “rate the amount of regret or rejoice you feel.” The participants responded on a scale with 9
radial dials with 1 = very rejoiceful and 9 = very regretful or 1 = very elated
and 9 = very disappointed. There were
32 scenarios total, with 16 rating regret or rejoice felt and 16 rating elation
or disappointment felt.
Design
The
design is a 2 by 2 by 2 by 2 by 2, advice by decisions by value of A by value
of B by emotion scale, factorial design.
The 2 levels of advice are that (you should buy) A or B, the two levels
of decision are that (you chose) A or B, the levels of value A are $50 or $200,
the two values of B are $50 or $200, and 2 levels of emotions are regretful and
rejoiceful or disappointment and elation (Campos, 2000).
Procedure
Participants
are directed to a web site where they are given a list of experiments to choose
from (http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/decisions/thanks.htm). When the participants click on “Emotional
Reaction to Experimenting” they read a statement that explains the instructions
for the experiment.
Participants
are given seven warm-up scenarios to expose them to each level of each
variable. Following the 7 warm-up
trials are 32 scenarios that were randomly ordered by factorWiz (Birnbaum, in
press). Half of the scenarios are
positive results while the other half are negative results. The participant then rates the emotion they
are experiencing after imagining each scenario.
Following
the experimental trails, Ss reported their age, education level, country of
birth, initial of person referring them, and comments. Next they click on a “finished” button that
sends them to a generic “Thank You” page, and saves the data.
Subjects
There
were a total of 249 participants. 202
participants were undergraduates fulfilling a requirement of a lower division
psychology class, 38 were recruited by members of the class, and 8 found the
web site on their own. Of this total
there were 65 males and 177 females, while 7 did not state.
Results
The
experiment was performed to investigate emotional reactions that people
experience when they make decisions that lead to positive or negative
outcomes. The hypothesis tested was
that regret and disappointment are rated as if they are the same word. The means showed that each scenario was
similar regardless of emotion.
The
scenarios for regret and rejoice were (1) advisor says A, you bought A, A paid
$50, while B paid $200, (2) advisor says A, you bought A, A paid $200, while B
paid $50, (3) advisor says A, you bought A, A paid $200, while B paid $50, (4)
advisor says A, you bought A, A paid $200, while B paid $200, (5) advisor says
B, you bought B, A paid $50, while B paid $50, (6) advisor says B, you bought
B, A paid $50, while B paid $200, (7) advisor says B, you bought B, A paid
$200, while B paid $50, (8) advisor says B, you bought B, A paid $200, while B
paid $200, (9) advisor says A, you bought B, A paid $50, while B paid $50, (10)
advisor says A, you bought B, A paid $50, while B paid $200, (11) advisor says
A, you bought B, A paid $200, while B paid $50, (12) advisor says A, you bought
B, A paid $200, while B paid $200, (13) advisor says B, you bought A, A paid
$50, while B paid $50, (14) advisor says B, you bought A, A paid $50, while B
paid $200, (15) advisor says B, you bought A, A paid $200, while B paid $50,
and (16) advisor says B, you bought A, A paid $200, while B paid $200. The means of the participants’ ratings were
5.32, 3.20, 7.20, 5.90, 5.34, 7.22, 3.11, 5.78, 5.34, 7.30, 3.00, 5.88, 5.31,
3.15, 6.93, and 5.77, respectively. The
second emotion had the same scenarios except the participants rated
elation/disappointment with the means of 5.24, 3.30, 7.00, 5.78, 5.28, 7.14,
3.26, 7.14, 3.26, 5.78, 5.27, 7.16, 3.05, 5.76, 5.21, 3.00, 7.01, and 5.78,
respectively.
A paired
t-test was performed on each pair of emotions.
There was a significant difference found between regret and
disappointment in the scenario that read advisor says A, you bought A, A paid
$50, while B paid $50 (t = 2.004, p < .05).
There was also a significant difference between regret and emotion in
the scenario that read advisor says A, you bought B, A paid $200, while B paid
$200 (t = 2.118, p < .05). The
significance show that there was enough of a difference in the response that caused
an interaction between the responses.
An ANOVA was performed to verify the results and no significance was
found (F = 0.072, p > .05 and f = 0.072, p > .05, respectively) which
shows that the difference was not enough to be considered significant.
Discussion
In the
experiment, the participants rated the level of regret or disappointment for
each of the scenarios. The difference
between each scenario was the advice they took, how much the stock was worth,
and how much the stock they chose was worth.
The words were not defined which may have lead the participants to
respond to each scenario as if regret and disappointment had the same meaning
In the study created by Kelsey and Schepanski, results show that disappointment and regret found a strong influence or regret and some evidence of the effects of disappointment. This suggests that regret has an influence on decision making in some tasks but not others. This was not apparent by the present study which did not show a significant difference.
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The
graphs, on the other hand, show something different. Figures 1 – 4 show that the rating increased each time the stock
that they did not vote for increased or decreased. The participants’ response
when rating a scenario where the decision was not in their favor increased.
In
conclusion, there was not significant difference between regret and
disappointment or rejoice and elation.
Also, if the outcome was in the Ss favor, the rating was higher than if
it was not in their favor.
Birnbaum,
M. H. (in press). SurveyWiz and
FactorWiz: JavaScript Web pages that make HTML forms for research on the
Internet. Behavior Research Methods,
Instruments, and Computers, 32(2).
Campos, G.
(2000). Emotional Reaction to
Investing, http://psych.fullerton.edu/psych305/students/gc/emotions.htm.
Kelsey, D.
& Schepanski, A. (1991). Regret and
disappointment in taxpayer reporting decisions: an experimental study. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making,
4, 33-53.
Roseman,
I., Antoniou, A. & Jose, P. (1996).
Appraisal determinants of emotions: constructing a more accurate and
comprehensive theory. Cognition and
Emotion, 10, 241-277.
Zeelenberg,
M., van Dijk, W., Manstead, A. & van der Pligt, J. (1998a). The experience of regret and
disappointment. Cognition and
Emotion, 12, 221-230.
Zeelenberg,
M., van Dijk, W., van der Pligt, J., Manstead, A., van Empelen, &
Reinderman, D. (1998b). Emotional
reactions to the outcomes of decisions: The role of counterfactual thought in
the experience of regret and disappointment.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 75, 117-141.
Means
Advised A Decided
A
A = $50 B = $50
5.43
Advised A Decided
A
A = $50 B =
$200
3.33
Advised A Decided
A
A = $200 B = $50
7.16
Advised A Decided
A
A = $200 B =
$200
5.91
Advised B Decided
B
A = $50 B = $50
5.40
Advised B Decided
B
A = $50 B =
$200
7.17
Advised B Decided
B
A = $200 B = $50
3.20
Advised B Decided
B
A = $200 B =
$200
5.83
Advised A Decided
B
A = $50 B = $50
5.42
Advised A Decided
B
A = $50 B =
$200
7.22
Advised A Decided
B
A = $200 B = $50
3.04
Advised A Decided
B
A = $200 B =
$200
5.85
Advised B Decided
A
A = $50 B = $50
5.40
Advised B Decided
A
A = $50 B =
$200
3.21
Advised B Decided
A
A = $200 B = $50
7.02
Advised B Decided
A
A = $200 B =
$200
5.87
Advised A Decided
A
A = $50 B = $50
5.38
Advised A Decided
A
A = $50 B =
$200
3.34
Advised A Decided
A
A = $200 B = $50
7.01
Advised A Decided
A
A = $200 B =
$200
5.80
Advised B Decided
B
A = $50 B = $50
5.33
Advised B Decided
B
A = $50 B =
$200
7.07
Advised B Decided
B
A = $200 B = $50
3.27
Advised B Decided
B
A = $200 B =
$200
5.79
Advised A Decided
B
A = $50 B = $50
5.35
Advised A Decided
B
A = $50 B =
$200
7.14
Advised A Decided
B
A = $200 B = $50
3.14
Advised A Decided
B
A = $200 B =
$200
5.82
Advised B Decided
A
A = $50 B = $50
5.30
Advised B Decided
A
A = $50 B =
$200
3.14
Advised B Decided
A
A = $200 B = $50
7.02
Advised B Decided
A
A = $200 B =
$200
5.81