The Power of Counterfactual Thinking: Exploring the Upward and Downward Varieties

Humans have a bias towards imagining how things could have gone better, leading to frequent regret/nCounterfactual thinking includes upward and downward counterfactuals/nUpward counterfactuals make us feel worse but can help us do better, while downward counterfactuals minimize the sting but don't help us do better/nOur brains are more inclined towards upward counterfactual thinking that makes us feel worse because it leads to progress and efficiency