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Anticipated regret and health behavior: A meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:Risk beliefs are central to most theories of health behavior, yet many unanswered questions remain about an increasingly studied risk construct, anticipated regret. The authors sought to better understand anticipated regret's role in motivating health behaviors. METHOD:The authors systematically searched electronic databases for studies of anticipated regret and behavioral intentions or health behavior. They used random effects meta-analysis to synthesize effect sizes from 81 studies (n = 45,618). RESULTS:Anticipated regret was associated with both intentions (r+ = .50, p < .001) and health behavior (r+ = .29, p < .001). Greater anticipated regret from engaging in a behavior (i.e., action regret) predicted weaker intentions and behavior, whereas greater anticipated regret from not engaging in a behavior (i.e., inaction regret) predicted stronger intentions and behavior. Anticipated action regret had smaller associations with behavioral intentions related to less severe and more distal hazards, but these moderation findings were not present for inaction regret. Anticipated regret generally was a stronger predictor of intentions and behavior than other anticipated negative emotions and risk appraisals. CONCLUSIONS:Anticipated inaction regret has a stronger and more stable association with health behavior than previously thought. The field should give greater attention to understanding how anticipated regret differs from similar constructs, its role in health behavior theory, and its potential use in health behavior interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

SUBMITTER: Brewer NT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5408743 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Anticipated regret and health behavior: A meta-analysis.

Brewer Noel T NT DeFrank Jessica T JT Gilkey Melissa B MB

Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association 20160908 11

<h4>Objective</h4>Risk beliefs are central to most theories of health behavior, yet many unanswered questions remain about an increasingly studied risk construct, anticipated regret. The authors sought to better understand anticipated regret's role in motivating health behaviors.<h4>Method</h4>The authors systematically searched electronic databases for studies of anticipated regret and behavioral intentions or health behavior. They used random effects meta-analysis to synthesize effect sizes fr ...[more]

PMID: 27607136

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Project description:It is widely accepted that affect is associated with motivation, decision making and well-being. Studies from various domains suggest that anticipated affect is a key determinant of behavioral intention. In this research, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the strength of the correlation between anticipated affect and behavioral intention. We searched the electronic databases PsycInfo, Scopus, Pubmed and Cochrane Library for articles published before July 2021. Studies were included based on the criteria 1) Participants are adults, 2) Participants rated their intention to engage in some behavior and the affect that they anticipate to experience if they perform or (not perform) the particular behavior, and 3) Pearson correlation coefficient(s) between behavioral intention and anticipated affect are reported. Studies whose target populations were patients with known psychiatric conditions were excluded. Correlation coefficients gathered from the selected studies were analyzed using a correlation-based meta-analysis. Meta-analytic estimate from 87 selected studies indicates a strong correlation between anticipated affect and behavioral intention (r = .61,95%CI = [.57,.64],p < .0001,k = 67,N = 25652). However, significant heterogeneity is observed across the included studies and moderator analysis shows a significant difference (p = .006) between hedonic vs. non-hedonic behaviors. While the estimated correlation between anticipated affect and behavioral intention is large, there is heterogeneity across studies. This correlation is significantly higher for hedonic behaviors than non-hedonic behaviors. We suggest that differences in the range of affect/emotions covered by each study is another potential moderator. Our results motivate further studies, covering a broader range of affect/emotions for a more accurate estimate of the correlation between anticipated affect and behavioral intention as well as experimental interventions to validate the causal direction of this relationship. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04383-w.

Dataset Information

Anticipated regret and health behavior: A meta-analysis.

Publications

Anticipated regret and health behavior: A meta-analysis.

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