Exploring the relations between regret, self-agency, and the tendency to repair using experimental methods and structural equation modeling

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that feelings of regret are elicited by events appraised as goal incongruent and caused by the self, and that they are characterized by a tendency to repair the event. Study 1 investigated whether the appraisal of self-agency increases the tendency to repair. Participants played a game in which goal-congruent and goal-incongruent events were caused by themselves (self-agency) or by a die (circumstances-agency). The tendency to repair was measured via behavior and self-reports. Self-agency increased feelings of regret but not the tendency to repair. Moreover, our data rejected the idea that regret is more than other negative feelings associated with the tendency to repair. Study 2 confirmed the findings of Study 1 using autobiographical recall. Both studies provide support for a relation between self-agency and feelings of regret, but not between self-agency and the tendency to repair, nor between the tendency to repair and feelings of regret