Counterfactual Thinking - Overview

Overview

Counterfactual literally means, contrary to the facts. A counterfactual thought occurs when a person modifies a factual antecedent and then assesses the consequences of that mutation. A person may imagine how an outcome could have turned out differently, if the antecedents that led to that event were different. For example, a person may reflect upon how a car accident could have turned out by imagining how some of the antecedents could have been different, that is by imagining a counterfactual conditional, where the consequence is preceded by the conditional, beginning with "if" e.g., if only I hadn't been speeding... or the same even if I had been going slower.... People can imagine alternatives that are better or worse than reality, e.g., if only I hadn't been speeding, my car wouldn't have been wrecked or if I hadn't been wearing a seatbelt I would have been killed (Roese & Olson, 1995). Counterfactual thoughts have been shown to produce negative emotions, however they may also produce functional or beneficial effects (Roese, 1997). These counterfactual thoughts can affect people's emotions, such causing them to experience regret, guilt, relief, or satisfaction, their social ascriptions such as blame and responsibility, and their causal judgments (Markman, Klein, & Suhr, 2009).