The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World (181 POCHE)

by Michael Lewis

“Obviously it is not regret itself that determines decisions—no more than the actual emotional response to consequences ever determines the prior choice of a course of action,” Danny wrote to Amos, in one of a series of memos on the subject. “It is the anticipation of regret that affects decisions, along with the anticipation of other consequences.” Danny thought that people anticipated regret, and adjusted for it, in a way they did not anticipate or adjust for other emotions. “What might have been is an essential component of misery,’ ” he wrote to Amos. “There is an asymmetry here, because considerations of how much worse things could have been is not a salient factor in human joy and happiness.” Happy people did not dwell on some imagined unhappiness the way unhappy people imagined what they might have done differently so that they might be happy. People did not seek to avoid other emotions with the same energy they sought to avoid regret. When they made decisions, people did not seek to maximize utility. They sought to minimize regret.