Voices of the Era
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Why do people regret?
People often see regret as a negative emotion, but research shows that regret plays a crucial role from an evolutionary perspective. Regret is an important emotion that allows humans to reflect on their actions and make better decisions in the future. From a tanevolutionary standpoint, regret is not a negative thing; it's a universal human experience. This capacity to imagine alternative scenarios enables humans to navigate complex social environments, avoid risks, and ultimately form cooperative groups. According to Harari's gossip theory, humans use gossip to share information and strengthen social bonds, as seen in how emotions like regret may have helped foster group cooperation. The ability to create fiction has helped humans to survive. For example, when you hear a rustling sound in front of the bush, only humans can think there might be a beast and go around the bush. The merit of making fiction works is in surviving and creating a community. In nature, humans are one of the weakest species. Humans do not have strong teeth like tigers, yet they do not have long and fast limbs like chimpanzees. The critical ability for humans to survive is to build community through the ability to create fiction. The community lets them help each other and share their stuff. They formed a smaller community by backbiting others. It enabled stronger bonds between groups. Ingroup cohesion arises from the exclusion of outgroups. In conclusion, regret is a powerful tool that has played an essential role in shaping human behavior and social dynamics. By allowing individuals to reflect on past decisions and imagine better outcomes, regret helps guide future behavior and facilitate learning. This reflective process, combined with human ability to create shared fiction, has been essential to the formation of a strong and collaborative society. Just as storytelling and gossip strengthened social bonds, regret has served as a mechanism for self-development and social cohesion. By allowing individuals to predict the consequences of their actions and make more informed decisions, regret has helped humanity not only survive but thrive in complex social environments. Regret is a natural part of cognitive processes that move toward better choices, stronger communities, and ultimately greater empathy and cooperation. Therefore, regret is an adaptive feature that reflects human evolutionary success as a social species rather than purely negative emotions.