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Cited by 368

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 4 of the 4 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

What We Regret Most... and Why

Open access
Roese, Neal J., Summerville, Amy·2005·Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Abstract

Which domains in life produce the greatest potential for regret, and what features of those life domains explain why? Using archival and laboratory evidence, the authors show that greater perceived opportunity within life domains evokes more intense regret. This pattern is consistent with previous publications demonstrating greater regret stemming from high rather than low opportunity or choice. A meta-analysis of 11 regret ranking studies revealed that the top six biggest regrets in life center on (in descending order) education, career, romance, parenting, the self, and leisure. Study Set 2 provided new laboratory evidence that directly linked the regret ranking to perceived opportunity. Study Set 3 ruled out an alternative interpretation involving framing effects. Overall, these findings show that people’s biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal.

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Metadata

Authors
Roese, N. J., & Summerville, A.
Venue
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Published
2005-09
Volume
31
Issue
9
Pages
1273-1285
ISSN
  • 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-7433
OpenAlex
W2074081748
Cited by
368
References
4
FWCI
7.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: What We Regret Most... and Why. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1177/0146167205274693
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Roese, N. J., & Summerville, A. (2005). What We Regret Most... and Why. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167205274693

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.