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Procrastination and counterfactual thinking: avoiding what might have been
1Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, N9B 3P4, Canada. fsirois@uwindsor.ca
The British Journal of Social Psychology
|August 3, 2004
Summary
Procrastination is linked to focusing on how things could be worse, not better. This self-enhancement motive may explain why downward counterfactual thinking is associated with self-defeating behaviors like procrastination.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Counterfactual thinking, or imagining alternative outcomes, can have negative consequences.
- Procrastination is a self-defeating behavior linked to avoidance and mood regulation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the relationship between counterfactual thinking direction and trait procrastination.
- To investigate the role of self-enhancement motives in this association.
Main Methods:
- Eighty participants generated counterfactuals in response to anxiety inductions.
- Trait procrastination was assessed and correlated with counterfactual generation patterns.
Main Results:
- Procrastination correlated with avoiding better-outcome thoughts (more downward, fewer upward counterfactuals).
- This pattern suggests a self-enhancement motive (mood repair) in procrastinators.
- Downward counterfactuals were more prevalent for delay-specific anxiety, supporting the link to procrastination.
Conclusions:
- Downward counterfactuals may be associated with self-defeating behaviors like procrastination.
- Self-enhancement motives appear to mediate the relationship between downward counterfactuals and procrastination.
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