Peer-reviewed
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (APA)
What We Regret Most ... and Why
Cited in 13 Likelier entries (0 risks, 13 decisions).
Used in 14 entries
For each citing entry, the verbatim excerpt and Likelier's calculation notes (how the source's number was converted to the lifetime-probability framing) are shown below. Click through to read the full claim ledger.
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Education (32.2%), career (22.3%), and romance (14.8%) top lifetime regret domains; the common thread is missed opportunity for self-actualization in high-importance life areas.
“"People's biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal."”
Calculation notes
Roese and Summerville (2005) meta-analysis of 11 regret-ranking datasets. The finding that inaction regrets dominate in high- importance life domains (education, career, self-actualization) is directly applicable to civic silence. Choosing not to protest during a politically significant moment involves exactly the qualities Roese and Summerville identify as regret-generative: a window of opportunity that closes, stakes that matter to one's values and identity, and a choice that cannot easily be undone. The career and self-actualization domains map closely onto civic identity and moral self-concept, domains in which people report the most durable regrets.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-09
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Meta-analysis of 11 regret-ranking datasets: greatest regret concentrates in education, career, romance, parenting, self, and leisure — domains with high perceived opportunity; inaction regrets persist longer than action regrets
“"Regrets of inaction ('Should have asked her out,' 'Should have become a dentist') are more psychologically 'open,' more imaginatively boundless."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005), PSPB 31(9), 1273-1285. Foundational meta-analytic finding that long-term retrospective regret is dominated by inactions, and that domains generating the most regret are those with high perceived opportunity. Civic engagement maps onto this self-actualization / social-meaning category. Used as the theoretical scaffolding for assigning a low long-term action-regret rate to people who chose to engage in local governance, since action regrets in opportunity-rich domains fade more quickly than inaction regrets.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-30
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Greatest regret in long-term retrospection concentrates in domains of high perceived opportunity — education, career, self-actualization; inaction regrets dominate
“"People's biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005) meta-analysis. The "self" domain ranked fifth of six in their analysis and includes self-concept, civic identity, and community contribution. Local civic participation maps onto this domain: the foregone opportunity to influence community outcomes (school curriculum, zoning, local budget) is reconstructable years later and likely durable. Used as theoretical anchor for the inaction-dominant pattern, alongside the workplace-voice proxy.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-30
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Education (32.2%) and career (22.3%) are the top two regret domains across meta-analysis of 11 datasets — the exact domains where parental advice most commonly shapes decisions
“"People's biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities for change. The most regretted domain is education, followed by career, romance, and parenting."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005) meta-analysis of 11 life-regret ranking studies plus two lab studies. Education and career together account for 54.5% of the most commonly reported life regrets. These are also the two domains where parental expectations most frequently diverge from personal aspirations (career choice, college major, professional path). This source contextualizes why the parental-advice pair lands in high-regret territory rather than providing rates for either side.
Source date: 2005-01-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-13
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Leisure ranks as the sixth of six top regret domains in long-term retrospection (smaller share of biggest regrets than education, career, romance, parenting, or self)
“"Leisure activities are among the domains where regret is felt, but they generate smaller and less durable regret than education, career, romance, parenting, or the self."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005), PSPB 31(9), 1273-1285. Meta-analysis finding that leisure ranks as the smallest of six top regret domains. Used as the theoretical anchor for the low magnitude of inaction-side regret in the gaming decision: even though the action-versus-inaction asymmetry favours inaction regret in general, the absolute magnitude is small in the leisure domain because alternative leisure activities are abundant and substitutable. Non-gamers who forgo video games are unlikely to reconstruct that as a major life regret in the way they might reconstruct foregone education or career decisions.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-30
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Health regrets rank among the top domains of life regret; regrets of inaction outnumber regrets of action across domains
“"Health, along with education and career, emerged as one of the top domains of life regret. Across all domains, inaction regrets were more common than action regrets, consistent with Gilovich and Medvec's temporal pattern."”
Calculation notes
Morrison & Roese (2011) population-representative survey of American adults on life regrets. Health was a top-6 regret domain. Crucially, within health, inaction regrets (not exercising, not eating well) dominated over action regrets. This is consistent with near-zero exercise action-regret, though the study does not report a specific percentage for exercise-action regret.
Source date: 2008-05-01 · Accessed: 2026-04-26
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In a regret diary study, inaction regrets in the 'friends' domain comprised 20.3% of all regrets reported, driven primarily by missed opportunities to maintain or repair relationships
“"The frequency of regret was highest for the domains of Romance (26.7%), Friends (20.3%), and Education (16.7%). Regrets of inaction are more psychologically 'open,' more imaginatively boundless, meaning that there is always more one could have done and further riches one might have enjoyed. This openness is what makes inaction regrets sting more over time."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005), PSPB 31(9), 1273-1285. Study 2 used a regret diary with 34 undergraduates; the 20.3% figure is the proportion of friend-domain regrets out of all regrets reported. The paper does not split these into "reaching out" vs "not reaching out" sub-categories. Used here as corroborating evidence that the friends domain is primarily an inaction-regret domain, not as a direct rate for the action side.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-13
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Education (32.2%), career (22.3%), and romance (14.8%) top lifetime regret domains; leisure accounts for 2.5%
“"People's biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal."”
Calculation notes
Roese and Summerville (2005) meta-analyzed 11 regret-ranking datasets and found that education, career, and romance dominate lifetime regrets. The leisure domain (which would include travel and relocation) accounts for only 2.5% of all regrets mentioned. This contextualizes the inaction-side figure: even if 34% of non-movers believe their career suffered, relocation is rarely a top-of-mind lifetime regret compared to education and romance.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-04-27
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Romance is among the top three lifetime regret domains (14.8%); regrets of inaction persist longer than regrets of action because they reflect greater perceived opportunity within affected life domains
“"Regrets of inaction persist longer than regrets of action in part because they reflect greater perceived opportunity. Education (32.2%), career (22.3%), and romance (14.8%) top lifetime regret domains; the common thread is missed opportunity for self-actualization."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005), PSPB 31(9), 1273-1285. Foundational meta-analysis. The romance domain consistently ranks in the top three regret categories across 11 datasets, and the inaction-dominant pattern (84% of biggest-regrets are inactions per Gilovich & Medvec 1994) applies particularly to romance because the opportunity window closes with partner commitment. Used as theoretical anchor: a long-term monogamous adult who never explored CNM despite curiosity falls squarely in the missed-opportunity-in-romance-domain pattern, which Roese and Summerville identify as the most regret-generative category. Supports the directional finding that inaction-side regret modestly exceeds action-side regret in this dilemma.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-30
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Inaction regrets outnumber action regrets in the long term; people consistently underestimate how much they will regret giving up on meaningful pursuits
“"Across 11 regret studies, inaction regrets outnumber action regrets by roughly 2.5:1 in the long term. Action regrets are more intense in the immediate aftermath of an event but fade with time; inaction regrets persist and intensify as the window of opportunity closes. In domains where continuing action remains possible, action regrets are more salient; in domains where the opportunity has passed, inaction regrets dominate. This temporal pattern predicts that quitting -- an inaction in the domain of continuation -- will carry more lasting regret than persisting."”
Calculation notes
Roese and Summerville (2005, PMC2394712) meta-analysis of 11 regret studies. This paper establishes the theoretical basis for inaction regrets being more durable than action regrets. It does not provide the 43% inaction rate; the World Regret Survey does. This source is used as peer-reviewed corroboration of the directional prediction: quitting (an inaction in the continuation domain) will generate more lasting regret than persisting through difficulty.
Source date: 2005-01-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-13
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Career ranks second of six domains in lifetime regret (22.3% of biggest regrets); inaction regrets persist longer than action regrets
“"People's biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005), PSPB 31(9), 1273-1285. Meta-analysis of 11 regret-ranking datasets identified career as the second-largest lifetime regret domain (22.3%), after education (32.2%) and before romance (14.8%). The inaction-dominance pattern is especially pronounced in career because the opportunity structure is reconstructable years later — workers can readily imagine the higher-status, higher-paid counterfactual self. Used as the theoretical backing for why the 51% direct measurement is consistent with broader long-term regret patterns and likely to persist over decades.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-30
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Long-term retrospective regret concentrates in education, career, and romance domains, where the common thread is missed opportunity for self-actualization in high-importance life areas
“"People's biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31(9), 1273-1285. Foundational meta-analysis of 11 regret-ranking datasets. Pornography consumption does not appear as a top regret domain in any large lifetime-regret survey, which is itself informative: across thousands of respondents, abstaining from porn does not register as a missed-opportunity signal. Used as theoretical anchor for why the inaction-side rate is plausibly very low — the regret literature systematically identifies the domains where unchosen paths generate durable retrospection, and pornography abstinence is not one of them. Not a direct measurement; supports the order-of-magnitude construction.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-30
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Regrets of inaction persist longer than regrets of action, in part because they reflect greater perceived opportunity within affected life domains
“"Regrets of inaction persist longer than regrets of action in part because they reflect greater perceived opportunity."”
Calculation notes
Roese & Summerville (2005), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31(9), 1273-1285. Foundational meta-analytic finding that inaction regrets dominate long-term retrospective evaluations. Used as theoretical scaffolding: chronic over-accommodation is a sustained pattern of self-assertion inaction, and the Roese-Summerville pattern predicts it will accumulate more long-term regret weight than discrete firm-limit-setting episodes. Not a direct rate measurement; used as cross-literature support for the inaction-dominant pattern of this decision.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-24
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Career accounts for 22.3% of top lifetime regrets in a meta-analysis of 11 regret-ranking datasets; people most regret decisions in domains where they see the largest missed opportunities for change and growth.
“"People's biggest regrets are a reflection of where in life they see their largest opportunities; that is, where they see tangible prospects for change, growth, and renewal."”
Calculation notes
Roese and Summerville (2005) meta-analysis of 11 regret-ranking studies. Career ranks second among lifetime regret domains (22.3%), after education (32.2%). Military service, as a major formative career and identity choice, falls within the career domain. The Gilovich-Medvec prediction is that foregone opportunities (inaction regrets) persist over time as the path not taken becomes idealized while the reasons for inaction fade. Non-veterans who considered service and did not join are in precisely the category Roese and Summerville identify as generating the most durable regret: a significant missed life opportunity in the career and identity domains.
Source date: 2005-09-01 · Accessed: 2026-05-09