The Mildly Depressed Experience More Post–Decisional Regret Than the Non–Depressed

Abstract

In two studies participants were asked to make a decision about whether they would hire a job applicant described in a fictitious vita. Later, participants were shown the vita of a second applicant and rated the extent to which they regretted their original decision. Participants who were mildly depressed reported higher levels of regret than non–depressed participants. This heightened regret level was observed: (1) regardless of whether participants had decided to hire the initial candidate; (2) independently of whether the decision had high or low personal relevance to participants; and (3) regardless of the extent to which the second candidate was a better candidate for the job than the first applicant. The results of causal modeling analyses suggest that the construct of depression predicts these regret results independently of related constructs, such as locus of control or causal uncertainty.