imagining alterantive to reality, typcially focuses on past
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When are counterfactuals generated?
- Frequently - spontaneous and pervasive, from early age - preschool can draw conclusions from counterfactuals, in ever culture
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Sana and Turley (1996) - well replicated
Uni student - outcome: positive or negative/ unexpected/expected: more counterfactuals when unexpected and negative
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Kanhenman and Tversky (1982) - Closeness
Mr Crane and Mr Tees - same timed flight - one delayed missed by 5 mins, other missed by 30 mins - more upset is Mr tees - because closer to have getting there
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Closness
The closer one gets to a desired outcome the stronger people feel that they could have done it more realistically - imagine more counterfactuals; seen in sports presenters and films for suspense
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Individual Differences (Bacon et al., 2013)
People spontaneously generate more counterfactuals when there mood is low - hard to tell if this is caused by cause or effect
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Consequences of counterfactual thinking
Positive emotions (johnson 1986) If you imagine things being worse you feel better, similarly if you imagine things could have been better you feel worse
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Functions of counterfactual thinking
Attributions of cause, blame and responsiblity, Judgements of luck, Counterfactual emotions - regret, dissapointment, worry, hope, - developing intentions for future and descion making
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Counterfactuals and blame, Macrae 1992
People are more attributable to blame when preceeding actions that are unsual and hence easier to imahine an alterntive outcome
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Judgements of luck (Teigen et al 1999)
People use luck - good/bad to mean narrowly avoiding a negative/postivie outcome e.g. factual would be bad luck if you broke your leg, counterfactual would be your numbers coming up on the week you dont do the lottery
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Learning from mistakes and preparing for the future
Prepartation for a task produces upward counterfactual thinking - e.g. If I had spent more time on my essay I would have done better
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Functional theory of counterfactuals (Rosese 1994)
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