Searching for the "Regret" in "Regret Theory"

Terry Connolly () and David Butler
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Terry Connolly: The Eller College, The University of Arizona

No 02-04, Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics

Abstract: Regret Theory postulates that choices may be influenced by the chooser's expectation that certain outcomes will be associated with an experience of regret (or, for positive outcomes, rejoicing), and a desire to avoid or experience these emotions. In a laboratory study (N = 50) of student subjects evaluating and actually playing real-money lotteries, we included direct questionnaire measures of their expected emotions for each possible outcome of the lotteries. The emotion measures appear to be reasonably reliable and well-behaved. They did not, however, conform well to specific inter-lottery comparisons postulated by Regret Theory, nor did they contribute much to the prediction of which lottery a subject would prefer.

Keywords: Regret; disappointment; emotions; decision making; choice; preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2002
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