Gallery Carre
No Regrets (Chicago Tribune)
Jul 23rd, 2006 by Jefferson
A study suggests that there is virtue in vice–to an extent; an argument for being able to look back and say, `No regrets.’
By Lisa Anderson
Tribune national correspondent
July 22, 2006
NEW YORK — “Regrets, I’ve had a few,” crooned Frank Sinatra in his signature, taking-stock-of-life ballad “My Way.” He didn’t give details, but new research indicates that, over time, one is likelier to have greater regrets about choosing virtue than lingering guilt over indulging vice.
Yes, you read that correctly.
In the short term, vice is regretted more than virtue. But in the long run, people tend less to regret guilty pleasures taken than those virtuously forsaken, according to a study of Americans by Ran Kivetz, an associate professor of business, and doctoral candidate Anat Keinan , both at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.
“We really do believe that in day-to-day self-control dilemmas, people are better off choosing to indulge,” said Kivetz, who has researched attitudes toward vice and virtue for a decade.
Doubtless appalling to some and delightful to others, the findings may have particular resonance for Baby Boomers, the first of whom turned 60 this year, an age at which some begin assessing their lives.
Slated for publication in the September issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, “Repenting Hyperopia: An Analysis of Self-Control Regrets” is among the first research papers to compare “indulgence regret” with “self-control regret,” according to its authors.
They write, “While yielding to temptation can certainly be harmful, this article argues that overcontrol and excessive farsightedness [hyperopia] can also have negative long-term consequences.”
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