Brief Report Children’s thinking about their own and others’ regret and relief Daniel P. Weisberg * , Sarah R. Beck School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK article info Article history: Received 27 August 2009 Revised 11 February 2010 Available online 21 March 2010 Keywords: Regret Relief Counterfactual thinking Emotions Decision making Self Other abstract In two experiments using a decision-making game, we investigated children’s thinking about regret and relief. In Experiment 1 (N = 43, 31 children [5 years 4 months to 8 years 2 months of age] and 12 adults), participants chose between two boxes containing different numbers of stickers. They rated their happiness before learning that the other box contained more (regret) or fewer (relief) stick- ers. They rerated their chosen box with the counterfactual knowl- edge. The experience of regret was evident at 5 years of age, and the experience of relief was evident at 7 years of age. In Experiment 2(N = 69, 53 children [5 years 3 months to 6 years 11 months of age] and 16 adults), participants either played the game (self condition) or watched another play the game (other condition). Children in the self condition confirmed the results from Experi- ment 1. We found no evidence that children up to 7 years of age were able to predict others’ regret and relief, a finding that sug- gests differing developmental trajectories between experiencing and understanding others’ regret and relief. Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction Thinking about what could have been, counterfactual thinking, allows us to speculate about the past and learn for the future (Roese, 1997). Counterfactual emotions, such as regret and relief, result from these thoughts (Kahneman & Miller, 1986; Roese & Olson, 1995). Counterfactual emotions involve reacting to the current state of affairs, just as basic emotions do (Ekman, Friesen, & Ellsworth, 1972), and comparing reality with an alternative world (Landman, 1993; Niedenthal, Tangney, 0022-0965/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.02.005 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: dxw401@bham.ac.uk (D.P. Weisberg). Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 106 (2010) 184–191 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Experimental Child Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jecp