The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Counterfactual thinking.
Abstract
Counterfactuals are mental representations of alternatives to the past and produce consequences that are both beneficial and aversive to the individual. These apparently contradictory effects are integrated in a functionalist model of counterfactual thinking. The author reviews research in support of the assertions that (a) counterfactual thinking is activated automatically in response to negative affect, (b) the content of counterfactuals targets particularly likely causes of misfortune, (c) counterfactuals produce negative affective consequences through a contrast-effect mechanism and positive inferential consequences through a causal-inference mechanism, and (d) the net effect of counterfactual thinking is beneficial.
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“Labaien et al. generate contrastive explanations for time-series data [141].”
From A Survey of Contrastive and Counterfactual Explanation Generation Methods for Explainable Artificial Intelligence (2021) · cites this paper as [141]
In the citing paper
“On the one hand, visual explanations for non-visual input data (i.e., datasets containing continuous or categorical featurevalue pairs) plot feature-value pair dependencies [134], [141], [142].”
From A Survey of Contrastive and Counterfactual Explanation Generation Methods for Explainable Artificial Intelligence (2021) · cites this paper as [141]
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“…Gavanski, Sherman, & McMullen, 1993; Niedenthal, Tangney, & Gavanski, 1994; Sanna, 1997), and can have constructive consequences, such as generating inferences about the causes of previous difficulties, guiding effective preparative and preventive behavior (Mandel & Lehman, 1996; Roese, 1997).”
BackgroundConsumer Choice between Hedonic and Utilitarian Goods
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How Emotion Shapes Behavior: Feedback, Anticipation, and Reflection, Rather Than Direct Causation
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“From an authoritative review of the literature, Roese (1997) concluded that emotion, specifically negative emotional experience, is the “chief determinant of the mere activation of counterfactual processing” (p. 135).”
Ali, S., Abuhmed, T., El-Sappagh, S., Muhammad, K., Alonso-Moral, J. M., Confalonieri, R., Guidotti, R., Del Ser, J., Díaz-Rodríguez, N., & Herrera, F. (2023) · Information Fusion · doi:10.1016/j.inffus.2023.101805 · Cited by 1,762
Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice.
Schwartz, B. N., Ward, A. C., Monterosso, J. R., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. R. (2002) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.5.1178 · Cited by 1,920
Metadata
- Authors
- Roese, N. J.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Roese, Neal J.
- ORCID
- Roese, Neal J.
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1997
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 133-148
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W4246855866
- Cited by
- 1,156
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 87 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 71 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 57 · 2016: 53 · 2015: 48 · 2014: 40 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 38
- FWCI
- 13.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- counterfactual reasoning, counterfactuals, negative affect, contrast effects, causal inference, misfortune, functionalism
- MeSH terms
- Anger, Depression, Humans, Internal-External Control, Motivation, Problem Solving, Social Perception, Thinking
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