Counterfactuals are thoughts about alternatives to past events, that is, thoughts of what
might have been. This article provides an updated account of the functional theory of …

Counterfactual reasoning is a hallmark of human thought, enabling the capacity to shift from
perceiving the immediate environment to an alternative, imagined perspective. Mental …

Abstract Thinking about what might have been—counterfactual thinking—is a common
feature of the mental landscape. Key questions about counterfactual thinking center on why …

Four experiments explored whether 2 uniquely human characteristics—counterfactual
thinking (imagining alternatives to the past) and the fundamental drive to create meaning in …

What do people think about the emotion of regret? Recent demonstrations of the
psychological benefits of regret have been framed against an assumption that most people …

Past research has established a connection between regret (negative emotions connected
to cognitions about how past actions might have achieved better outcomes) and both …

Difficulty making decisions is one of the symptoms of the depressive illness. Previous
research suggests that depressed individuals may make decisions that differ from those …

Difficulty making decisions is a core symptom of depressive illness, but the nature of these
difficulties has not been well characterized. The two studies presented herein use the same …

This meta-analysis examined the strength of association between upward counterfactual
thinking and depressive symptoms. Forty-two effect sizes from a pooled sample of 13,168 …

If you spend a lot of time thinking about “what might have been,” you're not alone. In If Only,
Neal Roese, Ph. D., one of the world's top scientists studying regret, shows us that thoughts …