Decision Reversibility and Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Counterfactual Thinking and Anticipated Regret

Figures & data

Figure 1 Satisfaction score changes by decision condition. In the irreversible condition, participants subjectively optimized their results by increasing their satisfaction of the decision, M = 1.27, SD = 1.20, whereas in the reversible condition, experiencers did not show this increase, M = – 1.17, SD = 1.27.

Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations of Study Variable

Variable	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5
1. Age	22.14	0.95
2. Gender^a	1.47	0.5	0.04
3. Decision reversibility^b	1.51	0.5	–0.00	0.05	–0.39**	(0.78)
4. Counterfactual thinking	3.76	1.24	–0.04	0.11	–0.37**	0.64**
5. Anticipated regret	3.50	1.38	0.12	0.09	0.70**	–0.54**	(0.72)
6. Satisfaction	0.10	1.77	–0.05	–0.01	–0.39**	(0.78)	–0.53**	(0.88)

Notes: N = 130. **p < 0.01. Scale reliabilities (Cronbach alphas) in parentheses. ^aGender: Male = 0, Female = 1. ^bDecision reversibility: reversible condition = 0, irreversible condition = 1.

Table 2 Effects in the Mediation Model

Direct Effects		Beta	SE	LLCI	ULCI
	DR → Counterfactual thinking	–0.87***	0.20	–1.36	–0.56
	DR → Anticipated regret	–0.54	0.20	–0.79	0.01
	Counterfactual thinking → Anticipated regret	0.84***	0.08	0.49	0.81
	Counterfactual thinking → Satisfaction	–0.34**	0.10	–0.48	–0.07
	Anticipated regret → Satisfaction	–0.29**	0.09	–0.43	–0.06
	DR → Satisfaction	0.93***	0.21	0.75	1.14
Indirect effects		Boot Effect	Boot SE	Boot LLCI	Boot ULCI
	DR → Counterfactual thinking → Satisfaction	0.35	0.19	0.08	0.88
	DR → Anticipated regret → Satisfaction	0.16	0.12	–0.01	0.46
	DR → Counterfactual thinking → Anticipated regret → Satisfaction	0.21	0.10	0.07	0.56

Notes: N = 130. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. DR = Decision reversibility. Beta = standardized coefficient; LLCI = 95% lower limit confidence interval; ULCI = 95% upper limit confidence interval. Boot = the statistics of indirect effects are the result of bootstrap method.

Figure 2 A scheme of the model tested.

Note: **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. The figure reports the estimates of the standardized path coefficients for the structural paths.