Aging, Choosing, … and Regretting

Abstract: This review examines how age-related differences in the experience of regrets relate to decision making with particular emphasis on memory-based and anticipatory processes. First, we summarize how reports of different types of regrets vary across the lifespan. For long-term/life regrets, older (vs. younger) adults tend to recall more intense and omission-based regrets, but not a higher number of regrets. For short-term/everyday regrets, older (vs. younger) adults tend to recall fewer and less intense regrets as well as similar or higher levels of decision satisfaction. For anticipated or future regrets, older adults are typically as accurate as younger adults in forecasting feelings, but they expect to experience lower levels of negative affect after missing out on desirable decision outcomes. Second, we link age-related differences in the experience of regrets to potential neural, cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms. With respect to neural and cognitive processes, age-related cognitive changes may alter older adults’ ability to process regret-related information and to engage in counterfactual thinking. With respect to affect, older adults tend to attend more strongly to positive decision-relevant information and remember past decisions and experiences as more positively than they initially experienced them. Finally, with respect to motivation, older age is typically associated with a shift toward maintenance and loss prevention goals. In addition, older adults focus more on controlling their response to regrets rather than the regrettable decision itself. We conclude our review by identifying limitations of the extant literature and making suggestions for future research directions on the topic.