Counterfactual thinking
From what might have been to what may be
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6206640 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David S Boninger, David Boninger (California Department of Education), Faith Gleicher, Alan Strathman |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 297-307 |
| Publication date | 1994-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037//0022-3514.67.2.297 |
| OpenAlex | W4233226069 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 31 |
| References cited | 23 |
Consideration of counterfactual alternatives to negative outcomes, particularly when the counterfactuals change those outcomes, has repeatedly been shown to intensify regret and judgments of blame. Two studies examined the influence of the relevance of the counterfactual to future behavior on Ss' judgments of regret and self-blame after a negative outcome. Results indicated that a dispositional tendency to consider the future consequences of current behavior can ameliorate the negative affect caused by thinking about how a negative outcome could have been avoided. Results also suggested that this amelioration is particularly likely to occur when Ss are induced to focus on the future
Cognitive psychology · Counterfactual thinking · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Deception detection and forensic psychology · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research · Psychology · Social Psychology
Positive and negative correlates of counterfactual thinking
Pre-Counterfactuals and Anticipated Emotions
Personal creativity
Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings in Modern Social Psychology
Counterfactuals, Causal Attributions, and the Hindsight Bias
The Motivational Impact of Temporal Focus
Emotional Reactions to the Outcomes of Decisions
A Reflection and Evaluation Model of Comparative Thinking
Procrastination and the Priority of Short‐Term Mood Regulation
Modality and Explanatory Reasoning
Anticipated Regret and Time Perspective
Kicking Yourself
Bad is freer than good
Does Misery Love Company? Exploring the Therapeutic Effects of TV Viewing on Regretted Experiences
Self-handicapping, excuse making, and counterfactual thinking
Self-awareness, probability of improvement, and the self-serving bias
The consideration of future consequences
The cost of richness
The excess choice effect
Believe-in counterfactual thinking and psychological capital
On Becoming What We Might Have Been
Does conscious perception render agents more responsible? A study of lay judgments
A Mix of Cultures, Values, and People
Counterfactual intensity
Affective Impact of Close Counterfactuals
Dare to compare
Accounting for one's behavior—What really determines its effectiveness? Its type or its content
Blame, Game Theory and Economic policy
Norm theory
What's basic about basic emotions?
A Cognitive Model of Planning
The simulation heuristic
Inducing Hypocrisy as a Means of Encouraging Young Adults to Use Condoms
Coping and the Simulation of Events
Regret and Elation Following Action and Inaction
The Social Psychology of Groups
It Could Be Worse
Plans and the Structure of Behavior
Social comparison, self-consistency, and the concept of self
Defensive attribution of responsibility
The Mental Simulation of Better and Worse Possible Worlds
A Theory of Social Comparison Processes
The affective consequences of social comparison
The influence of outcomes and procedures on satisfaction with formal leaders
Relative deprivation and procedural justifications
The undoing of scenarios
On causality, responsibility, and self-blame
A cognitive (attribution)-emotion-action model of motivated behavior
The consideration of future consequences
Mental simulation of causality
Characterological versus behavioral self-blame
| Unique citing works | 28 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,97 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2026 (33) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 26 |