Regret and responsibility: A reply to Zeelenberg et al. (1998)

M. Zeelenberg W. W. van Dijk, and W. S. R. Manstead (1998, Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 74, 254-272) recently reported an altered replication of our earlier study (T. Connolly, L. Lt. Ordonez, & R. Coughlan, 1997, Organisational Behaviour and: Human Decision Processes, 70,73-85) concerning the effects of decision agency on regret and outcome evaluation. Our earlier study had found no such effect, but Zeelenberg et al. did. In two new experiments, we have largely confirmed Zeelenberg et al.'s result but have shown that, contrary to most theory regret, (a) can appear even in the absence of decision agency, (b) can be unrelated to outcome evaluations, and (c) may be more influenced by the experience of gains or Posses from the status quo than by any decisional responsibility for those changes, (C) 2000 Academic Press.