Decision Tips
All decisions don’t require follow-up.
Whenever I make a bum decision, I just go out and make another.
—H. Truman
Julie Hernandez can drive herself nuts reliving her past decisions. “What if I had married Eddie back in 2011 when he asked me? I should have started a savings program as soon as I got out of school rather than waiting until I was nearly 30. I think I bought too much life insurance. Maybe I should have waited a couple of more months and bought a later-model computer.”
Julie is full of “coulda, woulda, shoulda’s.” She seems to have no problem making decisions, but, regardless of how they turn out, she rehashes them over and over. And she’s always second-guessing whether she made the right decision originally.
Julie is not unique. A lot of us spend considerable time revisiting old decisions and second-guessing what might have been had we chosen another option. In some cases, rehashing past decisions can be functional. However, more often than not, it’s a waste of time and creates additional dysfunctional outcomes.
What’s the plus side of revisiting past decisions? It can provide learning opportunities. We can learn from our past mistakes and successes. We learn what works and what doesn’t. However, there is a large downside. It wastes time and effort. Remember from Chapter 24, “Gone Is Not Always Forgotten: Understanding Sunk Costs,” after a decision is made, it’s often a sunk cost. It can also make us gun-shy about making future decisions. Obsessing on past decisions has been linked to inertia and procrastination if we become fearful of making mistakes.1
Obsessing on past decisions has been linked to inertia and procrastination if we become fearful of making mistakes.
The psychological concept we’re talking about here is regret. As alluded to in previous chapters, it’s a negative emotion that we experience when we realize or imagine that our present situation would have been better had we made a previous decision differently.2 We’ve all regretted, at one time or another, past decisions we’ve made. But some people seem to do it a lot more than others. You should be concerned about the negative side of regret because it lessens your decision effectiveness when you waste time “crying over spilt milk” and, more importantly, when it hinders your ability to make future decisions.
We know quite a bit about regret. For instance, to experience postdecision regret, you need to know the outcome of the decision you made.3 If you buy a gift for someone and you never hear back as to whether they liked it, it’s hard to experience regret. Moreover, you’re more likely to experience regret when you know the outcomes for the alternatives you rejected. An acquaintance of mine continually relives his decision made back in the late 1960s when he was living in Eugene, Oregon, to pass on an offer to invest in an upstart running-shoe business. That business became Nike. My acquaintance still regularly watches the price of Nike stock and beats himself up for his decision. While contrary to the previous example, the evidence also demonstrates that we tend to feel greater regret for actions we’ve taken than for inactions when a decision turns out badly.4 People who start businesses and fail, for instance, are likely to focus on the belief that they would have been better off had they never pursued the business venture in the first place.
One of the most interesting and counterintuitive findings related to regret is that there are situations when people who are objectively more successful than someone else actually end up feeling worse than that other person. Specifically, it was found that athletes who finished second in the Olympic Games were less happy with their achievement than those who finished third.5 The reason? The bronze medalists tended to focus more on fourth place and were thrilled to simply have earned a medal. In contrast, the silver medalists focused on the fact that they lost the gold and how close they were to being the Olympic champion.
When are you likely to experience regret? Four conditions have been proposed.6 First, as mentioned previously, feedback has to be present. Regret is related to feelings that arise from comparing alternatives chosen with those rejected. If you don’t know how a decision you made turned out, it’s hard to experience regret. Second are situations where the alternative chosen is roughly equal in attractiveness to one or more other alternatives. If the alternative chosen turns out badly, it’s easy to conclude that the wrong choice was made. This suggests that the more difficult a decision is, the more likely it is that you’ll take regret into account when deciding. Third, you’re likely to experience regret when the outcome from the decision is quickly known. You’re much more likely to regret not having looked when stepping off the curb into traffic, being hit by a car, and having to wear a leg cast for a month than you are to regret taking up smoking. The negative consequences from smoking are typically delayed by years or decades. And fourth, the more irreversible a decision, the more likely you are to engage in regret if things so awry. Conversely, if you can easily correct a past mistake, you’re less likely to experience regret about your previous choice.
You can’t eliminate regret, but you can minimize it. All decisions, for instance, don’t require follow-up. If you thoroughly researched the purchase of a new camera on the Internet and bought one, continuing your research after you placed the order isn’t necessary, and it’s likely to increase regret. Life’s decisions come with enough feedback. You don’t have to subject yourself to more if the decision is a sunk cost. You should devote more time to important decisions where several options are equally attractive. These are ones you’re most likely to regret. Finally, devote more time to decisions that are irreversible.
Devote more time to important decisions where several options are equally attractive.
Devote more time to decisions that are irreversible.