Self-Regulation of Counterfactual Thought. Consequences for Well-being and Action

Krott N, Dai M, Oettingen G. Self-Regulation of Counterfactual Thought. Consequences for Well-being and Action. Presented at the Association for Psychological Science 31st Annual Convention, Washington D. C., USA.Positive counterfactuals about an alternative past occur after a futile attempt to reach a goal. When opportunities to experience the counterfactual past are absent, disengagement from this alternative past should reduce negative counterfactual emotions and increase well-being. In contrast, when opportunities to experience the counterfactual past exist, active engagement should help people to restore the desired past. In three studies, we applied the self-regulation strategies of mental contrasting (Studies 1 and 2) and mental contrasting with implementation intentions (Study 3) to people’s counterfactuals in order to help them disengage or engage in their counterfactual past depending on their opportunities to still experience it. In Study 1, mental contrasting (vs. relevant control conditions) led people to feel less disappointed when evaluating a lost counterfactual past compared with their current reality, indicating disengagement from the lost counterfactual past. In Study 2, mental contrasting (vs. relevant control conditions) attenuated post-decisional regret pertaining to a lost counterfactual past. Finally, in Study 3, mental contrasting with implementation intentions helped people to engage in restoring their desired counterfactual past when they had opportunities to do so. Specifically, mental contrasting with implementation intentions (vs. relevant control conditions) increased people’s feelings of energization to restore their counterfactual past, which translated into effort and action towards restoring their counterfactual past over the course of four weeks