“Revisiting the Temporal Pattern of Regret in Action Versus Inaction: Replication of Gilovich & Medvec1994 With Extensions Examining Responsibility”, Siu Kit Yeung, Gilad Feldman2022-08-02 (psychology, decision theory)⁠:

The temporal pattern of regret is the phenomenon that people perceive or experience stronger regret over action compared to inaction in the short-term, yet stronger regret over inaction compared to action in the long term.

Following mixed and null findings in the literature, we conducted replications and extension of Studies 1, 3, 4, & 5 in the classic Gilovich & Medvec1994 which first demonstrated this phenomenon, with a single combined data collection in randomized display order with an online sample of Americans on Mechanical Turk (n = 988).

We found support for the original findings using different designs in Studies 1, 3, and 4, yet with weaker effects. We failed to find support for such a pattern in Study 5. We discuss possible interpretations for these differences: our replication adjustments, the change in the meaning of action and inaction, or change in hypothetical versus real-life personal experiences. Extending the replications, we found support for stronger responsibility for action compared to inaction both in the short-term and the long-term.

We conclude overall support for the effects, yet with follow-up work necessary to resolve the inconsistencies in the findings of the Study 5 replication.

Pre-registration, materials, data, and code were made available on OSF.

[Keywords: temporal pattern, judgment and decision-making, pre-registered replication, regret, action, inaction]