Do children who experience regret make better decisions? A developmental study of the behavioral consequences of regret.
Although regret is assumed to facilitate good decision making, there is little research directly addressing this assumption. Four experiments (N = 326) examined the relation between children's ability to experience regret and the quality of their subsequent decision making. In Experiment 1 regret and adaptive decision making showed the same developmental profile, with both first appearing at about 7 years. In Experiments 2a and 2b, children aged 6-7 who experienced regret decided adaptively more often than children who did not experience regret, and this held even when controlling for age and verbal ability. Experiment 3 ruled out a memory-based interpretation of these findings. These findings suggest that the experience of regret facilitates children's ability to learn rapidly from bad outcomes.
Queen's University Belfast.
Eimear
E
O'Connor
Teresa
T
McCormack
Aidan
A
Feeney
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male