Here's how to stop living with regret, writes swhitbo
of the forgone alternative.” The reason the forgone alternative made it to the top of your list of choices thus guarantees that it will always seem highly attractive, because otherwise you would have dismissed it right away. Without knowing how things would have turned out if you'd chosen it, you'll remember it as that castle in the cloud, a constant and tantalizing reminder of how things could have been.
You might think that revealing the alternative would make you feel less regret about your choice . However, in line with the study’s predictions, the findings showed that people actually felt better when they could see the choice they didn’t make. Participants in this final study made their choices , but before seeing the outcome, the researchers presented them with data that showed the strengths and weaknesses of the forgone candidate. This prevented the biased expectation process from misleading participants in the first place because they knew in advance about the alternative’s true value.