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Socio‐Emotional Context and Adolescents' Decision Making: The Experience of Regret and Relief After Social Comparison
Author(s) -
Habib Marianne,
Borst Grégoire,
Poirel Nicolas,
Houdé Olivier,
Moutier Sylvain,
Cassotti Mathieu
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/jora.12092
Subject(s) - regret , context (archaeology) , feeling , psychology , competition (biology) , social psychology , outcome (game theory) , developmental psychology , task (project management) , social environment , political science , paleontology , ecology , mathematics , management , mathematical economics , machine learning , computer science , economics , biology , law
Many studies indicate that adolescents are hypersensitive to rewards in salient socio‐emotional contexts. However, little is known about adolescents' sensitivity to complex negative emotions. To study the development of the ability to experience regret and relief, children, adolescents, and young adults performed a gambling task in a socio‐emotional context of competition, in which they were informed that their outcome would be compared with that of a competitor. The context of competition impacted the feelings of regret and relief in adolescents. When adolescents experienced an initial negative outcome, their feeling of relief was reinforced. However, they did not seem to experience regret in the social context of competition. These results provide a possible explanation for adolescents' enhanced risk seeking.