How does social comparison affect regret and relief in children, adolescents and adults?

How does social comparison affect regret and relief in children, adolescents and adults? Marianne Habib (marianne.habib@parisdescartes.fr) LaPsyDE, CNRS Unit 3521, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cite, France Sorbonne – Labo A. Binet, 45 rue Saint Jacques, 75005 Paris, France Sylvain Moutier (sylvain.moutier@parisdescartes.fr) LaPsyDE, CNRS Unit 3521, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cite, France Sorbonne – Labo A. Binet, 45 rue Saint Jacques, 75005 Paris, France Gregoire Borst (gregoire.borst@parisdescartes.fr) LaPsyDE, CNRS Unit 3521, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cite, France Sorbonne – Labo A. Binet, 45 rue Saint Jacques, 75005 Paris, France Olivier Houde (olivier.houde@parisdescartes.fr) LaPsyDE, CNRS Unit 3521, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cite, France Sorbonne – Labo A. Binet, 45 rue Saint Jacques, 75005 Paris, France Institut Universitaire de France, 103, Bd Saint-Michel, 75005 Paris, France Mathieu Cassotti (mathieu.cassotti@parisdescartes.fr) LaPsyDE, CNRS Unit 3521, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cite, France Sorbonne – Labo A. Binet, 45 rue Saint Jacques, 75005 Paris, France Abstract Apprehending the development of complex emotions is crucial to understand the development of decision-making. Regret and relief are complex counterfactual emotions, which can arise in private or in social contexts. The aims of the present study were (i) to uncover the development of regret and relief and (ii) to explore the development of a social form of regret and relief in a context of competition. The first experiment provides evidence that the ability to experience regret and relief continues to develop until adolescence, consistent with the implication of the orbitofrontal cortex in their experience. In a context of competition, we observed that adolescents were less able to experience social regret compared to children and adults, whereas their feeling of social relief was reinforced. Besides, adolescents failed to question the appropriateness of their initial decision. This result could provide an explanation for adolescents’ enhanced propensity to engage in risky behaviours. Keywords: Regret; Relief: Counterfactual thinking, Social context; Decision making; Development. Introduction Psychology and neuroscience studies have provided converging evidence that emotions play a crucial role in adaptive decision-making (Loewenstein, Rick & Cohen, 2008). Thus apprehending the development of basic and complex emotions is crucial to fully understand the development of decision-making. Among these emotions, counterfactually mediated emotions – like regret and relief – are related to counterfactual thinking and rely on comparison processes. In a private context, these processes rely on a comparison between what has happened and what could have happened if the subject had made another choice (Ritov, 1996). The counterfactual comparison has an informative function, as it enables to determine a reference point according to which the obtained outcome will be evaluated. This process can also be motivated by the social context. It will then rely on a comparison between what has happened to the subject and what has happened to another person, like a competitor, who made a different choice (Bault, Coricelli & Rustichini, 2008). To date, developmental psychology has mainly focused on the development of counterfactually mediated emotions in young children (Weisberg & Beck, 2010) showing that the experience of regret develops around 5 years of age, whereas the experience of relief develops around 7 years of age. Recently, the development of regret and relief in adolescence has been investigated in a probabilistic gambling task (Burnett, Bault, Coricelli & Blakemore, 2010). Participants’ emotional ratings revealed that relief, but not regret, develops during adolescence. The lack of development of regret in adolescence is surprising given that increasing feelings of regret and relief are positively correlated with enhanced activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) that continues to mature until late adolescence (Camille et al., 2004; Gogtay et al., 2004). A possible explanation of the lack of evidence for the development of regret in adolescence might relate to the nature of the variables used to study this emotion. Previous studies have focused primarily on emotional ratings. Knowing that counterfactually mediated emotions are related to participants’ decision and in order to fully