Research article summary (published 29 Apr 2003):

Mental undoing of actions and inactions in the absence of counterfactuals.

Full 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.

Author information

Author/s: Avni-Babad, Dinah (D);

Affiliation: School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. avni(-atsign-)mscc.huji.ac.il

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) (Br J Psychol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-May; vol 94 (issue Pt 2) : pp 213-22

Dates: Created 2003/06/13; Completed 2003/09/04; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12803816, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 2/18/2009)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MeSH Headings (categories) shown below.

Adolescent Adult Decision Making Emotions Female

Female Humans Male Mental Processes Task Performance and Analysis

Note: Bold headings indicate primary MeSH headings or qualifiers.

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