I’ll regret this… avoiding FOMO and more
When I was 16, my brother and I received a Christmas gift card for an upcoming family holiday.?
Influenced by MTV and the like, JUICY Couture,?unfortunately,?made it onto my spending radar. I grabbed it in the first 5 minutes upon entering the shop and continued my scout around the floor, pretending I was being responsible and still *thinking* about the purchase - I wasn’t.?
While I was faking my contemplation, my brother, who disappeared as soon as we entered, came down the escalator with a purchased product. Again unfortunately influenced by MTV,?NSYNC?and the like, he was now the proud owner of a pair of *hideous* jeans.?
We both felt that given a choice between what we would regret more, we went with rather buying it than not.?
This, thankfully, is not a flaw in just our genetic code. We’re actually all naturally inclined to avoid regrets. Behaviour scientists call this ‘Regret Aversion’.
Every time you make a decision, you use a regret factor to figure out which option involves the least amount of regret.
“Regret aversion occurs via fear of either commission or omission. In other words, it is the prospect of committing to a failure or omitting an opportunity that we seek to avoid.”
Regret aversion can also have positive effects, where potential regret can motivate healthy behaviours like our gym scenario.?
So, while cognitive biases often highlight people’s tendencies to prioritize the present over the future, regret aversion could help guide a decision to help our future self. Of course, we don’t want our future selves to experience regret, even if it means sacrificing something right now.?
But even with the positive in mind, maybe if we acknowledge that we overestimate the likelihood of regret, we could help our decision-making and not be so bogged down by the potential regret we might face.
Even more, if we start accepting outcomes as they are rather than dwelling in regret, we can make some prospects less aversive in the future.
Now, my brother may not regret exchanging those jeans shortly after the purchase, but I will regret not purchasing and having JUICY Couture in diamante on my behind,?forever.?
Happy regretting,?
Tarina
领英推荐
How to succeed? Get more sleep
Be honest: Do you keep your phone under your pillow, next to your bed or far away from the bedroom at night? Watch Arianna Huffington's full talk on why you need to prioritize your sleep to succeed here.
People’s words and actions can actually shape your brain — a neuroscientist explains how?
People’s words and actions can actually shape your brain — a neuroscientist explains how. Read it here.
John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!
Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there's much more to texting - linguistically, culturally - than it seems, and it's all good news. Watch it here.
What are language archetypes?
Although we are all different, we do showcase similarities. Here’s where language types come into play. Based on these resemblances we can all be characterised into a specific speaker profile or as we like to call it, a Language Type. Read more about language types here.
Powerful and powerless language 101
Language plays a crucial role in how these power relations are established and different people or groups interact with each other. How they use language for the most part determines how power is distributed between speakers. Having looked into the relationship between power and language, we can now say: being a powerful speaker does not depend on whether you sometimes apply a powerless speech style. Read more here.
A bang on slang: why this school in London might be hindering the development of leadership skills amongst its pupils
A secondary school in London, released a list of words and expressions that will be banned from school grounds and will not be allowed to be used in formal learning settings. Bianca Zwart shares thoughts on this ban. Read it?here.