Praise for regret: People value regret above other negativeemotions

摘要

What do people think about the emotion ofregret? Recent demonstrations of the psychological bene-fits of regret have been framed against an assumption thatmost people find regret to be aversive, both when experi-enced but also when recalled later. Two studies exploredlay evaluations of regret experiences, revealing them to belargely favorable rather than unfavorable. Study I dem-onstrated that regret, but not other negative emotions, wasdominated by positive more than negative evaluations. Inboth studies 1 and 2, although participants saw a great dealof benefit from their negative emotions, regret stood out asparticularly beneficial. Indeed, in study 2, regret was seento be the most beneficial of 12 negative emotions on all fivefunctions of: making sense of past experiences, facilitatingapproach behaviors, facilitating avoidance behaviors,gaining insights into the self, and in preserving socialharmony. Moreover, in study 2, individuals made self-serving ascriptions of regret, reporting greater regretexperiences for themselves than for others. In short, peoplevalue their regrets substantially more than they do othernegative emotions.