Counterfactual thinking Flashcards
what is it?
Important to basic part of life
— harris 97– children as young as 2 can think ab what nearly happened
Creating alternatives to events that ahve already occurred — on contrary to what actually happened
—counter the facts
what if?
Activation— when
Generate counterfactual thoughts in response to affect— esp negative affect— negative emotions
—related to the violation of expectations
If unexpected positive— could think this also couldve turned out something different— expectations violated
How do we mentally undo reality?
Think about how things couldve turned out better (upward counterfactual)
or worse (downward)
—can add or take away things to events- an action u did/ didnt do
—additive/ subtractive counterfactuals
—can distinguish between something we did or something someone else did — focus of counterfactual important
—focus on all actions in/external — can have influence on how we feel about event
—Can consider alternative antecedents— if this..
Classification of counterfactual thoughts
—dependant on if upwards/ downwards
—additive or subtractive
—focus own actions, other peoples, circumstances
How do we mentally undo reality?
—the ways we can mutate/ undo events are only limited by our imagination
—tend to generate counterfactuals in relatively systematic and predictable ways
Regularities— in counterfactual thinking
— Do not undo natural laws— cant blame tripping over on gravity
— generated CF — must be reasonable, believeable — plausible
—more likely to think of an alternative actions— that is close in time rather than distant
—focus on unusual events— rather than standard event- crashing car
-people tend to focus on first thing in the sequence, as it was first turning point- - caused knock on effect to next thing
What?
—Focus on actions rather than inactions— but not long term
—focus on things we can control over uncontrollable events
—focus on enabling events— makes outcome possible — over the causal events— what caused it
tendencies dont apply in all situations — some may be more important than others
Controllability vs causality
People tend to undo controllable events
—do ppl focus on enabling conditions bc controllable or combination of two?
Frosch 2015 et al
-created no of scenarios
—had negative outcome— cause/ enabler— manipulated if was controllable/ not
Enabler— not backing up files
Cause— opening email with a virus
Outcome— lost files
Results
4 conditipns
Cause controllable, enabler uncontrollable
— bothconditions — ppts focus on controllable event. more
— when controllability matched— people focusdd more on enabling conditions than cause
Pighin et al
Gave scenarios
found people focused on different things
when asked to generate counterfactual
—76% focused on situation — if only i could use pen, have more time— task was set up (actor)
(reader)—62% — focusedd on choice of envelope focus on actions
observer— required stooge— had to pretend that u couldnt solve task— 72% focused on situation
conclusions
readers of scenarios focus on different aspects of events than actors/ observers — reading ab something/ exoperiencing live gives different perspective
Role of self initiation
- need to distinguish between episodic and semantic counterfactual effects — episodic— relates to an episodes in your life
semantic— if only i had chosen other envelope- wldve been better
found when people recalled meaningful events from own life/ autobiographical memory— tend to focus on self initiated actions , self directed controllable counterfactuals - thinking things they couldve done diff
Individual differences
Challenge to counterfactual thinking
low self esteem— tend to focus more on own actions following failure
high self esteem— undo more own actions following success
depressed individuals— generate more controllable counterfactuals— thinking ab things they couldve done differently
high autonomy— generate more controllable counterfactuals
Simulation heuristic and norm theorydiffe
—counterfactual thinking framed as heuristic
—ppl tend to think that events that are easy to imagine— more likely
—missing lottery by one number- more upsetting than having no close numbers
—goal of counterfactuals— returning to normality— make reasons, excuses for
functional theory
Counterfactual thinking— reason for this— is to learn from failure— prepare to deal with future situations correctly
generating cf— allows us to identify cause— learn from in future
‘if i had got my car mot- wouldnt happen’
Some dysfunctionality— dysfunctional counterfactuals— linked to rumination— when overthinking— venturing more dysfunctional CF rather than helpful, functional ones
upwards, controllable, and additive counterfactual thoughts— are useful
Functional theory
2 pathways
Content neutral pathway— counterfactuals — increase motivation— changes occur across contexts
Content specific pathway— information contained wuth counterfactual thoughts— linked to behavioural intentions - next time set alarm b4 wake up — useufl w repeatable actions
considerations
2013– people generate more prefactuals than counterfactuals= thinking about fututre possibilities of how things could turn out differently without reference of what occurred in past
Implications
—prepare for future— help learn from mistakes— making causal link between eevnt and outcome
—explain past— generate counterfactuals— excuse the past— justify something worse that couldve happened
— play role in emotions— guilt, shame, regret, relief
—in order to think of emotions— you have to think of reality— imagine counterfactual alternative
patients — damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex- unable to feel regret/luck
Academic improvement
Nasco Marsh 1999- tracked college students for a month— recording thoughts/ reactions to exam scores
—more they thought about how things could have been better— more action took to improve situation — greater sense of control— higher scores next test
but cf thinking can alsp inhibit behaviour— if only lecturer wasnr annoying— focusing on uncontrollable— wont improve
Pilot simulations
morris moore=. looked at data of pilots in simulator —experiencing danger
—looked at counterfacturals generated as— reflecting experience
-more self focused counterfactual thoughts - greatest learning — change in behviour
—beneficial— functional
regret
O Connor
— found that children classified as having experienced regret or not having regret
—looked at whether these children swithc adaptively or not
— 28/36 children swithced
— rest who didnt, didnt expeirence regret
having emotional experience- resulted better deciison making nextt time
ppts generate few controllable counterfactuals— unless explicitly promted to do so
Eval
+ Can lead to improvemenbts— if only— learn from mistakes
+ imrpove causality— awareness- - why it leads to this
+ motivate to chnage
—= overthink regret— impair wellbeing— rut
cultural variances—
