title: When the alternative would have been better: counterfactual reasoning and the emergence of regret.
abstract: Counterfactual reasoning about how events could have turned out better is associated with the feeling of regret. However, developmental studies show a discrepancy between the onset of counterfactual reasoning (at 3 years) and the feeling of regret (at 6 years). In four experiments we explored possible reasons. Experiment 1 (3- to 6-year-old children) and Experiment 2 (adult control) show that even when regret is assessed more directly than in previous studies (e.g., Amsel & Smalley, 2000) only adults but not children regret their decision. Experiment 3 (3- to 14-year-old children) suggests that double-questioning--asking children how happy they are with what they got before and after they had seen what they could have got--creates false positive indications of regret in the youngest children and that--when controlling for false positives--regret is not evident before 9 years. However, children before this age make a difference between attractive (three candies) and less attractive (one candy) items (Experiment 4; 6- to 8-year-old children). Taken together, this suggests that before 9 years of age children base their judgements solely on what they got without taking into account what they could have got.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstraße 34, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria. eva.rafetseder@sbg.ac.at
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rafetseder
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Perner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003657:Decision Making; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011340:Problem Solving; D012201:Reward