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Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been

Counterfactual information, information about what might have been, forms the content of counterfactual thoughts and emotions like regret and relief. Recent research suggests that human adults and children, as well as rhesus monkeys, demonstrate ‘counterfactual curiosity’: they are motivated to seek...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fitzgibbon, Lily, Murayama, Kou
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9620751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36314158
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0340
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author Fitzgibbon, Lily
Murayama, Kou
author_facet Fitzgibbon, Lily
Murayama, Kou
author_sort Fitzgibbon, Lily
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description Counterfactual information, information about what might have been, forms the content of counterfactual thoughts and emotions like regret and relief. Recent research suggests that human adults and children, as well as rhesus monkeys, demonstrate ‘counterfactual curiosity’: they are motivated to seek out counterfactual information after making decisions. Based on contemporary theories of curiosity and information seeking and a broad range of empirical literature, we suggest multiple heterogeneous psychological processes that contribute to people's motivation for counterfactual information. This includes processes that are identified in the curiosity literature more generally—the potential use of counterfactual information for adaptive decision making (its long-term instrumental value) and the drive to reduce uncertainty. Additionally, we suggest that counterfactual information may be particularly alluring because of its role in causal reasoning; its relationship with prediction and decision making; and its potential to fulfil emotion regulation and self-serving goals. Some future directions have been suggested, including investigating the role of individual differences in counterfactual curiosity on learning and wellbeing. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.
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spelling pubmed-96207512022-11-14 Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been Fitzgibbon, Lily Murayama, Kou Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Part II: Ultimate Questions: Functions and Phylogeny Counterfactual information, information about what might have been, forms the content of counterfactual thoughts and emotions like regret and relief. Recent research suggests that human adults and children, as well as rhesus monkeys, demonstrate ‘counterfactual curiosity’: they are motivated to seek out counterfactual information after making decisions. Based on contemporary theories of curiosity and information seeking and a broad range of empirical literature, we suggest multiple heterogeneous psychological processes that contribute to people's motivation for counterfactual information. This includes processes that are identified in the curiosity literature more generally—the potential use of counterfactual information for adaptive decision making (its long-term instrumental value) and the drive to reduce uncertainty. Additionally, we suggest that counterfactual information may be particularly alluring because of its role in causal reasoning; its relationship with prediction and decision making; and its potential to fulfil emotion regulation and self-serving goals. Some future directions have been suggested, including investigating the role of individual differences in counterfactual curiosity on learning and wellbeing. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’. The Royal Society 2022-12-19 2022-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9620751/ /pubmed/36314158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0340 Text en © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Part II: Ultimate Questions: Functions and Phylogeny
Fitzgibbon, Lily
Murayama, Kou
Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been
title Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been
title_full Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been
title_fullStr Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been
title_full_unstemmed Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been
title_short Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been
title_sort counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been
topic Part II: Ultimate Questions: Functions and Phylogeny
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9620751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36314158
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0340
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