First Name:
Stephanie
Last Name:
Smith
Major Department:
Psychology
Thesis Director:
Todd McElroy
Date of Thesis:
May 2010
Two studies examined gender differences in regret for both a hypothetical and real life situation. Because males were not told to explicitly imagine how they would feel in the situations, we hypothesized that they should be less attentive to the action/inaction of their responses and consequently report less of an action/inaction effect compared to females. We hypothesized that females should imagine how they would feel in the situations and therefore, should have a stronger action/inaction effect. The findings of these studies showed that there were no significant results found in regards to gender differences. This suggests that, while males and females may differ in their sensitivity to positive and negative framing, they may not differ in regard to their sensitivity to action and inaction. I also noted that the action/inaction effect was the same for both hypothetical and real life situations but appeared stronger for real life situations.