Decision-related regret is a negative emotion associated with thinking about a past or future choice. The thinking component generally takes the form of a wish that things were otherwise and involves a comparison of what actually did or will take place with some better alternative--a "counterfactual thought." For predecisional (anticipated) regret, the thinking involves a mental simulation of t...

This study explored the role of decision-making orientation and post-decision thinking in one’s satisfaction with their choice of college major, as well as their motivation for tasks related to their major, perceptions of competence in major coursework, and their academic performance. Three hundred and seventy-eight college students in their junior or senior year completed a survey assessing th...

This paper describes an investigation into alternative management models applied to public call centres operations with the aim of delivering significant added value to the overall public firm. Call centres offer significant potential for value creation. However, in practice they are often created as mechanistic organisations and managed in such a way is to inhibit value creation. An investigat...

Four experiments explored whether 2 uniquely human characteristics-counterfactual thinking (imagining alternatives to the past) and the fundamental drive to create meaning in life-are causally related. Rather than implying a random quality to life, the authors hypothesized and found that counterfactual thinking heightens the meaningfulness of key life experiences. Reflecting on alternative path...

Valuing IT investments in hypercompetitive business environments remains an elusive task as traditional valuation tools fail to model inherent uncertainty. Real-options analysis presents a viable alternative to traditional valuation tools in planning and valuing IT investments in uncertain business environments. While much has been written about the quantitative and valuation aspects of real op...

In the psychology of thinking, little thought is given to what constitutes good thinking. Instead, normative solutions to problems have been accepted at face value, thereby determining what counts as a reasoning fallacy. I applaud Vranas (Cognition 76 (2000) 179) for thinking seriously about norms. I do, however, disagree with his attempt to provide post hoc justifications for supposed reasonin...

Risky decisions involve cognitive and emotional factors. As the primary test for the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) examines these factors. Skin conductance shows anticipatory physiological responses on the IGT supporting SMH. Pupil dilation offers an alternative physiological marker. Predictive effects of anticipatory pupillary responses to positive and negative ...

Humans discount the value of future rewards over time. Here we show using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neural coupling analyses that episodic future thinking reduces the rate of delay discounting through a modulation of neural decision-making and episodic future thinking networks. In addition to a standard control condition, real subject-specific episodic event cues were pre...

Futurists build scenarios for clients and are concerned with effectively communicating them. Stories provide frameworks and aim to engage audiences with entertainment techniques that include more than rational thinking and analysis, by exploring alternative futures involving characters and events as individuals deal with issues brought about by a new situation. Stories work at multiple levels i...