Regretting Inaction
Hi,
This week’s email is about a key aspect of the psychology of regret (plus an exciting announcement).
Here are the key practical points you should know (mainly from this research article):
Taking action tends to lead to more regret than inaction in the short term, but inaction tends to lead to more regret in the long term.
People’s biggest regrets in life are often things they didn’t do, like take more risks, be more assertive, or spend more time with family.
The pain of regrettable action tends to decrease faster over time than the pain of inaction, because of mechanisms like the tendency to search for positive aspects (“silver linings”) of our actions.
The pain of regrettable inaction tends to increase faster over time, because of mechanisms like the tendency to remember ourselves as being more confident than we actually were, which makes our failures to act feel inexplicable.
Failures to act also tend to be more memorable than actions, because they tend to be associated with things that feel unfinished.
On a semi-related note, I’m extremely excited to share that I have a book coming out at the end of summer with Penguin Random House: Solving Procrastination: The Science of Why We Put Things Off and How to (Finally!) Stop.
It’s been called “an unusually useful book on a problem everyone struggles with” and “the book procrastinators actually need”. If you procrastinate (or care about someone who does), and want a step-by-step practical guide that will help you, please pre-order the book now. Doing this guarantees you’ll get it as soon as possible, and will make a huge difference to the book’s visibility in a way that will help get it in front of lots more people.
Super excited about this! Let me know if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions.
Thank you, and have a great week,
Itamar
PS If you have a Goodreads account, please consider also adding the book to your “Want to Read” shelf now, as this can further help increase its visibility.