Kicking yourself: Going against one’s better judgment amplifies self-blame

(Press-News.org) ITHACA, N.Y. – When people go along with opinions that go against their better judgment, they feel more culpable for the decision if things go wrong than if they hadn’t received another opinion, new research from Cornell University finds.

The effect may seem counterintuitive, but going against one’s better judgment increases thoughts about better decisions that could have been made, which amplify feelings of control over the situation. 

“If you have another person in the decision process, you would think that’s going to help spread the responsibility,” said Kaitlin Woolley, professor of marketing and management communications. “And yet not only do people not blame the adviser more, they’re blaming themselves more.”

Woolley and Sunita Sah, associate professor of management and organizations, published their findings in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

The research included a 200-subject in-person experiment with physical prizes and four online studies, with up to 1,200 participants per experiment.

Participants chose between two lotteries, one with clearly superior prizes. Some subjects were offered input from an adviser who had no more knowledge about the choices. The adviser recommended the lesser lottery, and in four of the five studies participants received the lowest possible prize: 10 cents.

Across all studies, they found that participants’ feelings of culpability and the perception that they had control over the situation were greater in the group that received input than in the group that made an independent decision. Participants thought about how they could have ignored the advice and enjoyed the better prize.

“This effect could extend beyond small decisions. It can apply to major life choices, like wondering, ‘What if I had chosen a different career?’” Sah said.

In previous research, Sah, a physician turned organizational psychologist, found that people often followed obviously bad advice. This new research explored the downstream effects of regret, responsibility and blame after following bad advice – at least from an adviser who is not an expert.

“Our research highlights the importance of rejecting suggestions that go against our better judgments,” Sah said. “People often assume that following someone else’s suggestion will shield them from responsibility or regret. But in reality, the opposite happens. You end up feeling worse when you ignored what you knew was the better choice.”

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