Fear of Regret

Anticipated regret distorts our decisions — we make choices designed to minimize future regret rather than maximize expected outcomes, often at significant cost.

• An investor holds a losing stock because selling and then watching it recover would feel far worse than the current paper loss.
• People don't switch careers because imagining 'what if the new job is worse' looms larger than the expected value of switching.
• Doctors order excessive tests not because they are medically necessary but to preempt the regret of missing something — leading to overtesting and its own harms.