Podcast
No Stupid Questions
It was a 1998 paper that discussed the nature of regret, exploring whether people regret actions or inactions more, concluding that both perspectives had merit.
The paper is called Varieties of Regret, A Debate and Partial Resolution.
— Episode: 152. What’s the Worst Kind of Regret?
Episode: 152. What’s the Worst Kind of Regret?
It was a 1998 paper that discussed the nature of regret, exploring whether people regret actions or inactions more, concluding that both perspectives had merit.
The paper is called Varieties of Regret, A Debate and Partial Resolution.
people regret actions more in the short term and inactions more in the long run because the sting of regrettable action diminishes relatively quickly whereas the pain of regrettable inaction lingers longer.
people's long term regrets of inaction are largely wistful and therefore not terribly troublesome.
the adverse consequences of inaction often take longer to manifest themselves than the adverse consequences of actions
Gilovich and Medvec agree that like ice cream regret comes in different flavors and that many regrets of inaction are more wistful and therefore less bothersome than their original research on the subject implied that's them conceding point by the way they're like condominium sort of show to something that many regrets of inaction are more wistful and less bothersome than say regrets of action but they continue they still believe however that long term regrets of inaction are truly painful for many individuals and that the pain centers around the feelings of despair documented in the research reported here and just one more thing before I stop quoting them like the Bible here to use a combat metaphor inaction regrets are more troublesome in the long term because they tend to be the last ones still standing.