Regret about environmental destruction: Examining the relative strengths of affective regret and cognitive regret in promoting pro-environmental behaviors

Regret is experienced when one imagines “what might have been”. Although a familiar emotion to many, it has seldom been examined in the context of environmental destruction. We conducted three studies to examine the affective (negative affect in response to destruction) and cognitive (counterfactual thoughts of how things could be different) experiences of regret, and their roles in promoting pro-environmental behavior. Study 1 (N = 235) was a cross-sectional study and it showed that participants reported higher cognitive regret than affective regret when reflecting upon human-caused environmental destruction. However, affective regret was the stronger predictor of pro-environmental behaviors. Study 2 (N = 257) was a between-subjects experiment where we manipulated information exposure by presenting information about the loss of mangroves due to human causes or natural causes or presenting neutral information on mangrove species. Participants showed higher levels of both cognitive and affective regret in response to mangrove destruction (vs. neutral mangrove information), particularly when it was attributed to human actions rather than forces of nature. Both types of regret were found to mediate the effects of condition (human-caused vs. control) on pro-environmental behaviors, but affective regret was the more consistent mediator. Study 3 (N = 393) was a between-subjects experiment which manipulated regret focus through a writing task to elicit affective, cognitive, or no regret. Results showed that pro-environmental behavioral tendencies were highest in the affective regret condition, followed by cognitive regret condition, and lowest in the control condition, although these differences were not statistically significant. In summary, this research found that although people tend to show stronger cognitive regret than affective regret about environmental destruction, it is affective regret that more strongly predicts pro-environmental behaviors. Our findings highlight the promising impact of the feeling of regret in motivating sustainable actions.