Fear of regret

What it is

Avoiding choices we might later regret, which can push us toward the safe or conventional option.

Related

• Loss aversion bias
  Both make us avoid the choice that could leave us worse off than before.
• Status quo bias bias
  We expect more regret from a change that goes wrong than from staying put.
• Omission bias bias
  Harm from acting stings more than harm from not acting, so we avoid acting.
• Paradox of choice bias
  With many options, regret about the ones not chosen grows.

Appears in

• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly#82: Fear of regret

References

• Wikipedia: Fear of regret en.wikipedia.org
• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: List of cognitive biases en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: Cognitive bias codex en.wikipedia.org

More in “Deciding and acting: incentives, loss and commitment”