Mental undoing of actions and inactions in the absence of counterfactuals

Abstract

Three studies investigated the emotional impact of actions and inactions in the long term when no counterfactuals were provided. Using the investment scenario, Byrne and McEleney (2000) showed that people did not regret inaction more than action in the long term when they knew the counterfactuals of both. In the present Experiments 1 and 2, it was found that when both counterfactuals were not known, people still judged that actions would be regretted more than inactions not only in the short term but also in the long term. In Experiment 3, the actor and the non-actor were judged separately. As expected, no emotional difference was found between them, but the actor was attributed worse feelings in the long term than in the short term.