Counterfactual thought is thinking about what might have been. It is remembering the past, not as it actually happened, but how we wish it happened. Research has shown that counterfactual thought affects a wide range of psychological processes including emotion and decision making. This research examined the counterfactual thoughts of individuals engaged in a gambling task. A 2 (outcome groups) X 2 (counterfactual direction) X 4 (gambling type) Analysis of Variance did not find significant differences in the number of counterfactuals generated between gambling groups. It was found, however, that individuals who lost the task generated more counterfactuals than individuals who won the task. The discussion section explains how future researchers could use this unique task along with a more sophisticated method of assessing counterfactual thought to understand more fully how counterfactual thought affects gambling behavior. / Department of Psychological Science

Counterfactual thinking is the tendency to view events that can easily be imagined otherwise as events that ought not to have been (Miller & Turnbull, 1990). Thirty-six male and sixty-five female subjects from introductory psychology courses completed a counterfactual thinking questionnaire and two personality measures assessing locus of control (Rotter Locus of Control Scale) and self-esteem (Texas Social Behavior Inventory). Results supported the hypothesis that people are more likely to generate counterfactual thoughts when their actions are perceived as easily mutable or when an event is easily imagined otherwise. Results also indicated that women were more likely to mutate events than were men. Finally, participants with high self-esteem were more likely to mutate events than were participants with low self-esteem. Results provided no evidence for a relationship between counterfactual thinking and locus of control. Factors that might have reduced the impact of the individual difference variables are considered. / Department of Psychological Science

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