Regret is a basic emotion

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Abstract

Regret is the prototypical decision related emotion. It is felt when the outcome of a non-chosen alternative is better than the outcomes obtained. Regret is a functional emotion that helps people to correct mistakes, and that can be anticipated beforehand and induce people to choose in such a way to avoid regret from happening. In the early 1980s researchers in economics proposed regret theory, as an alternative to rational choice theory. Subsequently, researchers empirically studied how anticipations of regret influence decision making in a variety of domains. I propose that regret is also a basic emotion: meaning that it is innate, universal, consequential and functional. I think it is often not seen as basic, because it is cognitively complex, it manifests itself relatively late in life, and it is not typically associated with a clear facial expression. In my approach, I follow Ekman (1994), who wrote, “My use of the term basic is to emphasize the role that evolution has played in shaping both the unique and the common features that emotions display, as well as their current function.” (p. 15, italics in the original). Ekman (1992, 1999) provides a list of characteristics that, in his view, distinguish basic emotions from one another and from other emotional and affective phenomena. In this talk I will provide an overview of research on regret that led me to the conclusion that regret has all the characteristics to call it a basic emotion.

The speaker

Doctor Marcel Zeelenberg is a cognitive psychologist. He worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Eindhoven and Sussex Universities, and is now Professor of Economic Psychology at Tilburg University, and Professor of Marketing at VU Amsterdam. His research tries to understand how people make decisions, and how these are influenced by emotions and motivational factors. His published research deals with regret, disappointment, envy, shame, guilt, anger, pride and hope, and also with the psychology of greed. His more applied work examines financial decision making in the context of insurances, taxation, poverty, and people's reactions to behavioural interventions.