Do We All Feel Regret?

 Do We All Feel Regret?

    The word regret can be defined as feeling sad or disappointed over something that has happened or something that has been done. It is almost impossible for a human to say that they have never experienced regret. Our biggest regrets sometimes even make up our character and shape up who we are. We often hear the phrase “we learn from our mistakes’ which is true in most cases. We don’t want to make the same mistake twice, or else the feeling of regret feels even worse. There have been countless studies on the memory of humans and animals. In terms of regret, we find an interesting study on mouse memory conducted by a group of researchers led by Brian M. Sweis. By comparing models of memory and regret within human and nonhuman psychology, we can make inferences bases on the similarities and differences found in these studies

    The first study involving the mice talked how about how regret can be defined and measured. They pointed out how current and recent studies show that the feeling of short-term regret has be examined, but there are not too many studied conducted on the long-term feelings or effects of regret. This article explains how mice were able to feel long-term regret after a long and conclusive experiment. How the researchers came up with a method to test their hypothesis was very intriguing. The mice were able to adapt and use strategies to make decisions in order to conserve their resource. At first, the mice would consume their resource relatively quickly. However soon after learning that they couldn’t attain the resources, their regret prevented from making the same mistake again in the in future. Repetition of this experiment showed that the mice were learning to avoid the same mistakes they had made.

    Another article shows that although young children won’t really understand the meaning of regret until the age of 9, studies have shown that they will demonstrate a feeling of regret and learn from it. The article explains that by the age of 6, most children will have experienced the emotion of regret, but they wouldn’t necessarily be able to explain it. McCormack, T. et al were able to find that although children aren’t able to explain or define regret, they can still see the impact and effects of regret after a child has gone through some level of it. Their study showed that after a child experiences regret after making a certain decision, that child will be less likely to make that same decision and be more likely to make a more positive choice the next time. This research also showed that regret taught children to postpone enjoyment of any sort and have an improved behavior towards others. 

    These studies show different yet similar results amongst the psychology of humans and nonhumans. First we see that the mice are able to feel regret and learn from their mistakes. Now it’s a given that the mice can’t really feel regret and that maybe they are just conditioned to receiving their resources when best suited. Then we see children who don’t really understand regret but show similar results to the mice. After feeling regret following a decision they made, they tend to avoid that same decision in order to avert that same feeling of regret again. It would be interesting to see if we can see feelings of regret within other animals or we can see how different cultures show and handle regret. 

Reference

McCormack, Teresa, et al. “Regret and Decision-Making: A Developmental Perspective.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 29, no. 4, 2020, pp. 346–350., doi:10.1177/0963721420917688. 

Sweis, Brian M., et al. “Mice Learn to Avoid Regret.” PLOS Biology, vol. 16, no. 6, 2018, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2005853.