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Keith Markman [41]Keith D. Markman [3]Keith Douglas Markman [2]
  1. The Mental Simulation of Better and Worse Possible Worlds.Keith Markman, Igor Gavanski, Steven Sherman & Matthew McMullen - 1993 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 29 (1):87-109.
    Counterfactual thinking involves the imagination of non-factual alternatives to reality. We investigated the spontaneous generation of both upward counterfactuals, which improve on reality, and downward counterfactuals, which worsen reality. All subjects gained $5 playing a computer-simulated blackjack game. However, this outcome was framed to be perceived as either a win, a neutral event, or a loss. "Loss" frames produced more upward and fewer downward counterfactuals than did either "win" or "neutral" frames, but the overall prevalence of counterfactual thinking did not (...)
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  2. A Reflection and Evaluation Model of Comparative Thinking.Keith Markman & Matthew McMullen - 2003 - Personality and Social Psychology Review 7 (3):244-267.
    This article reviews research on counterfactual, social, and temporal comparisons and proposes a Reflection and Evaluation Model (REM) as an organizing framework. At the heart of the model is the assertion that 2 psychologically distinct modes of mental simulation operate during comparative thinking: reflection, an experiential (“as if”) mode of thinking characterized by vividly simulating that information about the comparison standard is true of, or part of, the self; and evaluation, an evaluative mode of thinking characterized by the use of (...)
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  3. Multiple Explanation: A Consider-an-Alternative Strategy for Debiasing Judgments.Keith Markman & Edward Hirt - 1995 - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69 (6):1069-1086.
    Previous research has suggested that an effective strategy for debiasing judgments is to have participants "consider the opposite." The present research proposes that considering any plausible alternative outcome for an event, not just the opposite outcome, leads participants to simulate multiple alternatives, resulting in debiased judgments. Three experiments tested this hypothesis using an explanation task paradigm. Participants in all studies were asked to explain either 1 hypothetical outcome (single explanation conditions) or 2 hypothetical outcomes (multiple explanation conditions) to an event; (...)
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  4. Counterfactual Thinking: Function and Dysfunction.Keith Markman, Figen Karadogan, Matthew Lindberg & Ethan Zell - 2009 - In Keith Douglas Markman, William Martin Klein & Julie A. Suhr (eds.), Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation. New York City, New York, USA: Psychology Press. pp. 175-194.
    Counterfactual thinking—the capacity to reflect on what would, could, or should have been if events had transpired differently—is a pervasive, yet seemingly paradoxical human tendency. On the one hand, counterfactual thoughts can be comforting and inspiring (Carroll & Shepperd, Chapter 28), but on the other they can be anxiety provoking and depressing (Zeelenberg & Pieters, Chapter 27). Likewise, such thoughts can illuminate pathways toward better future outcomes (Wong, Galinsky, & Kray, Chapter 11), yet they can also promote confusion and lead (...)
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  5. Implications of Counterfactual Structure for Creative Generation and Analytical Problem Solving.Keith Markman, Matthew Lindberg, Laura Kray & Adam Galinsky - 2007 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 33 (3):312-324.
    In the present research, the authors hypothesized that additive counterfactual thinking mind-sets, activated by adding new antecedent elements to reconstruct reality, promote an expansive processing style that broadens conceptual attention and facilitates performance on creative generation tasks, whereas subtractive counterfactual thinking mind-sets, activated by removing antecedent elements to reconstruct reality, promote a relational processing style that enhances tendencies to consider relationships and associations and facilitates performance on analytical problem-solving tasks. A reanalysis of a published data set suggested that the counterfactual (...)
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  6. The Impact of Perceived Control on the Imagination of Better and Worse Possible Worlds.Keith Markman, Igor Gavanski, Steven Sherman & Matthew McMullen - 1995 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21 (6):588-595.
    Effects of perceived control and close alternative outcomes were examined. Subjects played a computer-simulated "wheel-of-fortune" game with another player in which two wheels spun simultaneously. Subjects had either control over spinning the wheel or control over which wheel would determine their outcome and which would determine the other player's outcome. Results showed that (a) subjects generated counterfactuals about the aspect of the game that they controlled, (b) the direction of these counterfactuals corresponded to the close outcome associated with the aspect (...)
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  7. Counterfactual Thinking, Persistence, and Performance: A Test of the Reflection and Evaluation Model.Keith Markman, Matthew McMullen & Ronald Elizaga - 2008 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44 (2):421-428.
    The present research extends previous functional accounts of counterfactual thinking by incorporating the notion of reflective and evaluative processing. Participants generated counterfactuals about their anagram performance, after which their persistence and performance on a second set of anagrams was measured. Evaluative processing of upward counterfactuals elicited a larger increase in persistence and better performance than did reflective processing of upward counterfactuals, whereas reflective processing of downward counterfactuals elicited a larger increase in persistence and better performance than did evaluative processing of (...)
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  8. Downward Counterfactuals and Motivation: The Wake-Up Call and the Pangloss Effect.Keith Markman & Matthew McMullen - 2000 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 26 (5):575-584.
    Three studies examined the motivational implications of thinking about how things could have been worse. It was hypothesized that when these downward counterfactuals yield negative affect, through consideration of the possibility of a negative outcome, motivation to change and improve would be increased (the wake-up call). When downward counterfactuals yield positive affect, through diminishing the impact of a potentially negative outcome, motivation to change and improve should be reduced (the Pangloss effect). Results from three studies supported these hypotheses. Studies 1 (...)
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  9. What We Regret Most Are Lost Opportunities: A Theory of Regret Intensity.Keith Markman, Denise Beike & Figen Karadogan - 2009 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 35 (3):385-397.
    A recent theory (Roese & Summerville, 2005) has suggested that regret is intensified by perceptions of future opportunity. In this work, however, it is proposed that feelings of regret are more likely elicited by perceptions of lost opportunity: People regret outcomes that could have been changed in the past but can no longer be changed and for which people experience low psychological closure. Consistent with the lost opportunity principle, Study 1 revealed that regretted experiences in the most commonly regretted life (...)
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  10. "I Couldn't Have Known": Accountability, Foreseeability, and Counterfactual Denials of Responsibility.Keith Markman & Philip Tetlock - 2000 - British Journal of Social Psychology 39:313-325.
    This article explores situational determinants and psychological consequences of counterfactual excuse-making - denying responsibility by declaring `I couldn’t have known.’ Participants who were made accountable for a stock investment decision that resulted in an outcome caused by unforeseeable circumstances were particularly likely to generate counterfactual excuses and, as a result, to deny responsibility for the outcome of their choices and minimize their perceptions of control over the decision process. The article discusses the implications of these findings for structuring accountability reporting (...)
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  11. Accountability and Close-Call Counterfactuals: The Loser Who Nearly Won and the Winner Who Nearly Lost.Keith Markman & Philip Tetlock - 2000 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 26 (10):1213-1224.
    This article links recent work on assimilative and contrastive counterfactual thinking with research on the impact of accountability on judgment and choice. Relative to participants who felt accountable solely for bottom-line performance outcomes, participants who were accountable for their decision-making process (a) had more pronounced differential reactions to clearly winning versus (winning but) nearly losing and to clearly losing versus (losing but) nearly winning; (b) were less satisfied with the quality of their decisions when they nearly lost and more satisfied (...)
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  12. Activating a Mental Simulation Mind-Set through Generation of Alternatives: Implications for Debiasing in Related and Unrelated Domains.Keith Markman, Edward Hirt & Frank Kardes - 2004 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 40 (3):374-383.
    Encouraging people to consider multiple alternatives appears to be a useful debiasing technique for reducing many biases (explanation, hindsight, and overconfidence), if the generation of alternatives is experienced as easy. The present research tests whether these alternative generation procedures induce a mental simulation mind-set (cf. Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000), such that debiasing in one domain transfers to debias judgments in unrelated domains. The results indeed demonstrated that easy alternative generation tasks not only debiased judgments in the same domain but also (...)
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  13. Affective Impact of Close Counterfactuals: Implications of Possible Futures for Possible Pasts.Keith Markman & Matthew McMullen - 2002 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 38:64-70.
    Three studies examined the motivational implications of thinking about how things could have been worse. It was hypothesized that when these downward counterfactuals yield negative affect, through consideration of the possibility of a negative outcome, motivation to change and improve would be increased (the wake-up call). When downward counterfactuals yield positive affect, through diminishing the impact of a potentially negative outcome, motivation to change and improve should be reduced (the Pangloss effect). Results from three studies supported these hypotheses. Studies 1 (...)
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  14. Deconstructing Self-Blame Following Sexual Assault: The Critical Roles of Cognitive Content and Process.Keith Markman, Audrey Miller, Ian Handley & Janel Miller - 2010 - Violence Against Women 16 (10):1120-1137.
    As part of a larger study, predictors of self-blame were investigated in a sample of 149 undergraduate sexual assault survivors. Each participant completed questionnaires regarding their preassault, peritraumatic, and post assault experiences and participated in an individual interview. Results confirmed the central hypothesis that, although several established correlates independently relate to self-blame, only cognitive content and process variables—negative self-cognitions and counterfactual-preventability cognitions—uniquely predict self-blame in a multivariate model.
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  15. Reflective and Evaluative Modes of Mental Simulation.Keith D. Markman & Matthew N. McMullen - 2005 - In David R. Mandel, Denis J. Hilton & Patrizia Catellani (eds.), The psychology of counterfactual thinking. New York: Routledge. pp. 77--93.
    A number of researchers have focused on the distinction between upward counterfactuals that simulate a better reality and downward counterfactuals that simulate a worse reality. In this chapter the authors will discuss the important aspects of a model (Markman and McMullen 2003) that attempts to explain how the very same counterfactual can engender dramatically different affective reactions. According to the model, the consequences of simulation direction are moderated by what we have termed simulation mode--relatively stronger tendencies to engage in reflective (...)
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  16. Peers and Performance: How In-Group and Out-Group Comparisons Moderate Stereotype Threat Effects.Keith Markman & Ronald Elizaga - 2008 - Current Psychology 27:290-300.
    The present study examined how exposure to the performance of in-group and out-group members can both exacerbate and minimize the negative effects of stereotype threat. Female participants learned that they would be taking a math test that was either diagnostic or nondiagnostic of their math ability. Prior to taking the test, participants interacted with either an in-group peer (a female college student) or an out-group peer (a male college student) who had just taken the test and learned that the student (...)
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  17. Depression, Control, and Counterfactual Thinking: Functional for Whom?Keith Markman & Audrey Miller - 2006 - Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 25 (2):210-227.
    The present study examined relationships among counterfactual thinking, perceived control, and depressive symptoms. Undergraduate participants, grouped according to nondepressed, mild–to–moderately depressed, and severely depressed symptom categories, described potentially repeatable negative academic events and then made upward counterfactuals about those events. Whereas participants endorsing mild–to–moderate depressive symptom levels generated more counterfactuals about controllable than uncontrollable aspects of the events they described, participants endorsing severe levels of depressive symptoms generated counterfactuals that were less controllable, less reasonable, and more characterological in nature. Furthermore, (...)
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  18. Counterfactual Thinking and Regulatory Fit.Keith Markman, Matthew McMullen, Ronald Elizaga & Nobuko Mizoguchi - 2006 - Judgment and Decision Making 1 (2):98-107.
    According to regulatory fit theory (Higgins, 2000), when people make decisions with strategies that sustain their regulatory focus orientation, they “feel right” about what they are doing, and this “feeling-right” experience then transfers to subsequent choices, decisions, and evaluations. The present research was designed to link the concept of regulatory fit to functional accounts of counterfactual thinking. In the present study, participants generated counterfactuals about their anagram performance, after which persistence on a second set of anagrams was measured. Under promotion (...)
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  19. Psychological Momentum: The Phenomenology of Goal Pursuit.Keith Markman & Walid Briki - 2018 - Social and Personality Psychology Compass 12 (9):e12412.
    Psychological momentum (PM) is thought to be a force that influences judgment, emotion, and performance. Based on a review of the extant literature, we elucidate two distinct approaches that researchers have adopted in their study of PM: the input-centered approach and the output-centered approach. Consistent with the input-centered approach, we conceptualize PM as a process whereby temporal and contextual PM-like stimuli (i.e., perceptual velocity, perceptual mass, perceptual historicity, and perceptually interconnected timescales)—initially perceived as an impetus—are extrapolated to imagined future outcomes (...)
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  20. Nostalgia and Temporal Self-Appraisal: Divergent Evaluations of Past and Present Selves.Keith Markman, Hannah Osborn & Jennifer Howell - 2022 - Self and Identity 21 (2):163-184.
    The present research examined how nostalgia influences temporal self-appraisals and whether those appraisals relate to current mood. Across two studies, participants recalled either an ordinary or nostalgic memory and provided appraisals of their present and past selves. Participants who recalled nostalgic memories evaluated their past selves more positively than their present selves, whereas the reverse occurred for those who recalled ordinary memories. Those who recalled a positive future event also evaluated their future selves more positively than their present selves. Nostalgia (...)
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  21. "It Was Meant to Be:” Retrospective Meaning Construction through Mental Simulation.Keith Markman, Matthew Lindberg & Hyeman Choi - 2013 - In Keith Douglas Markman, Travis Proulx & Matthew J. Lindberg (eds.), The Psychology of Meaning. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pp. 339-355.
    The goal of the current chapter is to discuss how counterfactual thinking serves a more general sense-making function and to delineate the mechanisms by which this may occur. To demonstrate the meaning as sense-making function of counterfactual thinking, we (Lindberg & Markman, 2012) selected a historical event that was likely to be compelling to most student participants, yet not one with which most students would be familiar. This allowed for the manipulation of event details for the purpose of examining underlying (...)
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  22. Depression, Regulatory Focus, and Motivation.Keith Markman - 2007 - Personality and Individual Differences 43:427-436.
    The present study examined relationships between chronic regulatory focus and motivation to improve upon academic outcomes in a sample of individuals varying in degree of hopelessness depression (HD) symptoms. Participants recalled a recent negative academic outcome, completed a measure of regulatory focus, reported their subsequent motivation to improve upon future academic outcomes, and then indicated whether their grades on examinations, assignments, and their GPAs had improved or worsened since the described outcome. Results indicate that degree of HD symptoms positively relates (...)
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  23. Living in neither the Best nor Worst of All Possible Worlds: Antecedents and Consequences of Upward and Downward Counterfactual Thinking.Keith Markman, Matthew McMullen & Igor Gavanski - 1995 - In Neal Roese & James Olson (eds.), What Might Have Been: Social Psychological Perspectives on Counterfactual Thinking. Erlbaum. pp. 133-167.
    As the opening line of Dickens' classic novel suggests, it is very often the case that people can imagine both better and worse alternatives to their present reality. Although Dickens was writing about events that occurred over two centuries ago, it remains just as true today that we clearly live in neither the best nor the worst of possible worlds. For instance, we can wish for the amelioration of present difficulties in the Middle East yet still take comfort in the (...)
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  24. Social Prediction and the "Allegiance Bias".Keith Markman & Edward Hirt - 2002 - Social Cognition 20 (1):58-86.
    Two studies examined the allegiance bias – the rendering of biased predictions by individuals who are psychologically invested in a desired outcome. In Study 1, fans of either Notre Dame or University of Miami college football read information about an upcoming game between the two teams and then explained a hypothetical victory either by Notre Dame or Miami. Although explaining a hypothetical victory biased the judgments of controls (i.e., fans of neither team) in the direction of the team explained, the (...)
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  25. General Attainability Beliefs Moderate the Motivational Effects of Counterfactual Thinking.Keith Markman & Elizabeth Dyczewski - 2012 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48 (5):1217-1220.
    Previous research has demonstrated that upward counterfactuals generated in response to less-than-optimal outcomes on repeatable tasks are more motivating than are downward counterfactuals. In the present work, however, it was hypothesized that upward counterfactuals should only be motivating to the extent that one believes that improvement is generally attainable. By contrast, it was hypothesized that upward counterfactuals should actually diminish motivation and downward counterfactuals should enhance motivation to the extent that one believes that improvement is generally unattainable. In support of (...)
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  26. Psychotherapy and the Restoration of Meaning: Existential Philosophy in Clinical Practice.Keith Markman, Peter Zafirides, Travis Proulx & Matthew Lindberg - 2013 - In Keith Douglas Markman, Travis Proulx & Matthew J. Lindberg (eds.), The Psychology of Meaning. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pp. 465-477.
    In this chapter, we explore how themes of existential philosophy have been used to develop a formal orientation of psychotherapy, and we discuss the main principles of existential psychotherapy and their application in practice. We also draw upon case examples to specifically illustrate how the approach of existential psychotherapy is utilized in clinical practice. In the case examples, each patient's identify has been disguised to maintain confidentiality. The new science of meaning, represented by the chapters in this volume, not only (...)
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  27. Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Gay Men and Lesbians: The Role of Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice.Keith Markman, Jennifer Ratcliff, G. Daniel Lassiter & Celeste Snyder - 2006 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 32 (10):1325-1338.
    Research has uncovered consistent gender differences in attitudes toward gay men, with women expressing less prejudice than men (Herek, 2003). Attitudes toward lesbians generally show a similar pattern, but to a weaker extent. The present work demonstrated that motivation to respond without prejudice importantly contributes to these divergent attitudes. Study 1 revealed that women evince higher internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS, Plant & Devine, 1998) than do men and that this difference partially mediates the relationship between gender and (...)
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  28. Stimulating Creativity in Groups through Mental Simulation.Keith Markman, Elaine Wong, Laura Kray & Adam Galinsky - 2009 - In E. A. Mannix (ed.), Creativity in Groups (Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Vol. 12). Emerald Group Publishing. pp. 111-134.
    A growing literature has recognized the importance of mental simulation (e.g., imagining alternatives to reality) in sparking creativity. In this chapter, we examine how counterfactual thinking, or imagining alternatives to past outcomes, affects group creativity. We explore these effects by articulating a model that considers the influence of counterfactual thinking on both the cognitive and social processes known to impact group creative performance. With this framework, we aim to stimulate research on group creativity from a counterfactual perspective.
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  29. Self-Blame Among Sexual Assault Victims Prospectively Predicts Revictimization: A Perceived Sociolegal Context Model of Risk.Keith Markman, Audrey Miller & Ian Handley - 2007 - Basic and Applied Social Psychology 29 (2):129-136.
    This investigation focused on relationships among sexual assault, self-blame, and sexual revictimization. Among a female undergraduate sample of adolescent sexual assault victims, those endorsing greater self-blame following sexual assault were at increased risk for sexual revictimization during a 4.2-month follow-up period. Moreover, to the extent that sexual assault victims perceived nonconsensual sex is permitted by law, they were more likely to blame themselves for their own assaults. Discussion focuses on situating victim-based risk factors within sociocultural context.
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  30. Control Motivation, Depression, and Counterfactual Thought.Keith Markman & Gifford Weary - 1998 - In Miroslav Kofta (ed.), Personal Control in Action. Springer. pp. 363-390.
    The notion that there exists a fundamental need to exert control over or to influence one’s environment has enjoyed a long history in psychology (e.g., DeCharms, 1968; Heider, 1958) and has stimulated considerable theoretical work. Such a need has been characterized by theorists at multiple levels of analysis. Control motivation, for example, has been characterized broadly in terms of proactive (White, 1959) or reactive (e.g., Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978; Brehm, 1966; Brehm & Brehm, 1981) strivings for control over general (...)
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  31. "If Only I Had" Versus "If Only I Had Not:" Mental Deletions, Mental Additions, and Perceptions of Meaning in Life Events.Keith Markman & Hyeman Choi - 2019 - Journal of Positive Psychology 14 (5):672-680.
    The present research investigated the relationship between meaning perceptions and the structure of counterfactual thoughts. In Study 1, participants reflected on how turning points in their lives could have turned out otherwise. Those who were instructed to engage in subtractive (e.g., If only I had not done X...”) counterfactual thinking (SCT) about those turning points subsequently reported higher meaning perceptions than did those who engaged in additive (e.g., ‘If only I had done X...’) counterfactual thinking (ACT). In Study 2, participants (...)
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  32.  58
    The Interplay between Counterfactual Reasoning and Feedback Dynamics in Producing Inferences about the Self.Keith D. Markman, Ronald A. Elizaga, Jennifer J. Ratcliff & Matthew N. McMullen - 2007 - Thinking and Reasoning 13 (2):188 – 206.
    Counterfactual reasoning research typically demonstrates contrast effects—nearly winning evokes frustration, whereas nearly losing evokes exhilaration. The present work, however, describes conditions under which assimilative responses (i.e., when judgements are pulled towards a comparison standard) also occur. Participants solved analogies and learned that they had either nearly attained a target score or nearly failed to attain it. Participants in the no trajectory condition received this feedback in the absence of any prior feedback, whereas those in the trajectory condition received feedback after (...)
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  33. Psychological Momentum: Intuitive Physics and Naive Beliefs.Keith Markman & Corey Guenther - 2007 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 33 (6):800-812.
    The present research examines psychological momentum (PM), a perceived force that lay intuition suggests influences performance. PM theory is proposed to account for how momentum perceptions arise, and four studies demonstrate the influence of lay intuitions about PM on expectations regarding performance outcomes. Study 1 establishes that individuals share intuitions about the types of events that precipitate PM, and Study 2 finds that defeating a rival increases momentum perception. Study 3 provides evidence for the lay belief that as more PM (...)
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  34. Counterfactual Structure and Learning from Experience in Negotiations.Keith Markman, Laura Kray & Adam Galinsky - 2009 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45 (4):979-982.
    Reflecting on the past is often a critical ingredient for successful learning. The current research investigated how counterfactual thinking, reflecting on how prior experiences might have been different, motivates effective learning from these previous experiences. Specifically, we explored how the structure of counterfactual reflection – their additive (‘‘If only I had”) versus subtractive (‘‘If only I had not”) nature – influences performance in dyadic-level strategic interactions. Building on the functionalist account of counterfactuals, we found across two experiments that generating additive (...)
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  35. Mental Simulation: Looking Back in Order to Look Ahead.Keith Markman & Elizabeth Dyczewski - 2013 - In Donal Carlston (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition. Oxford University Press. pp. 402-416.
    Mental simulation refers to the imagination of alternative, counterfactual realities. This chapter provides an overview of research on simulations of the past— retrospective simulation—and simulations of the future— prospective simulation. Two major themes run throughout. The first is that both retrospective and prospective thinking are inextricably linked, relying on a mixture of episodic and semantic memories that share common neural substrates. The second is that retrospective and prospective simulation present trade-offs for the individual. On the one hand, they are functional, (...)
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  36. "It Would Have Been Worse under Saddam:" Implications of Counterfactual Thinking for Beliefs Regarding the Ethical Treatment of Prisoners of War.Keith Markman & Matthew McMullen - 2008 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44:650-654.
    In response to criticism following news of the mistreatment of Iraqis at the US prison in Abu Ghraib, some media personalities and politicians suggested that the treatment of these prisoners ‘‘would have been even worse’’ had former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein still been in power. It was hypothesized that the contemplation of this argument has undesirable consequences because counterfactual thinking can elicit both contrastive and assimilative effects. In the reported study, participants considered how the prisoners at Abu Ghraib would have (...)
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  37. Mental Simulation and Sexual Prejudice Reduction: The Debiasing Role of Counterfactual Thinking.Keith Markman, Audrey Miller, Maverick Wagner & Amy Hunt - 2013 - Journal of Applied Social Psychology 43:190-194.
    Reducing prejudice is a critical research agenda, and never before has counterfactual priming been evaluated as a potential prejudice-reduction strategy. In the present experiment, participants were randomly assigned to imagine a pleasant interaction with a homosexual man and then think counterfactually about how an incident of sexual discrimination against him might not have occurred (experimental condition) or to imagine a nature scene (control condition). Results demonstrated a significant reduction in sexual prejudice from baseline levels in the counterfactual simulation group. Importantly, (...)
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  38. The Influence of Chronic Control Concerns on Counterfactual Thought.Keith Markman & Gifford Weary - 1996 - Social Cognition 14 (4):292-316.
    The present study investigated relationships between counterfactual thinking, control motivation, and depression. Mildly depressed and nondepressed participants described negative life events that might happen again (repeatable event condition) or probably will not happen again (nonrepeatable event condition) and then made upward counterfactuals about these events. Compared to nondepressed participants, depressed participants made more counterfactuals about controllable than uncontrollable aspects of the events they described, and this effect was mediated by general control loss perceptions in the repeatable event condition. Making more (...)
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  39. The New Science of Meaning.Keith Markman, Travis Proulx & Matthew Lindberg - 2013 - In Keith Douglas Markman, Travis Proulx & Matthew J. Lindberg (eds.), The Psychology of Meaning. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pp. 3-14.
    We summarize some of the classic theoretical underpinnings of the emerging psychology of meaning, with special emphasis on the existentialist perspective that understood meaning in a way that converges with our present understanding and provides a blueprint for subsequent efforts. As we go on to describe, all of these perspectives intersect at a central understanding of meaning making: the ways that we make sense of ourselves and our environment, the feelings that are aroused when these understandings are constructed or violated, (...)
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  40. Regret, Consistency, and Choice: An Opportunity X Mitigation Framework.Keith Markman & Denise Beike - 2012 - In Bertram Gawronski (ed.), Cognitive Consistency: A Fundamental Principle in Social Cognition. Guilford Press. pp. 305-325.
    Over time, research programs focusing on the processes that underlie dissonance and regret diverged to the point that the present literature only occasionally draws explicit connections between regret and consistency seeking processes. One of our aims in this chapter is to reestablish the connection between regret and consistency within the context of a theory that examines two independent factors that critically interact to enhance or diminish regret. The first of these is opportunity, which includes both perceptions of past opportunities to (...)
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  41. Expectancy Effects in Reconstructive Memory: When the Past is Just What We Expected.Keith Markman, Edward Hirt & Hugh McDonald - 1998 - In Steven Jay Lynn & Kevin M. McConkey (eds.), Truth in Memory. Guilford Press. pp. 62-89.
    Topics include sources of schematic effects on memory; the M. Ross and M. Conway model; E. R. Hirt's model of reconstructive memory; and moderators of the relative weighting of expectancy vs memory trace.
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  42. Assimilation and Contrast in Counterfactual Thinking and Other Mental Simulation-Based Comparison Processes.Keith Markman, Jennifer Ratcliff, Nobuko Mizoguchi, Ronald Elizaga & Matthew McMullen - 2007 - In Diederik A. Stapel & Jerry M. Suls (eds.), Assimilation and Contrast in Social Psychology. Psychology Press. pp. 187-206.
    This chapter examines when and how mental simulation--the consideration of alternatives to present reality--produces emotional responses that reflect either contrast or assimilation. The chapter begins with a description of a comparison domain that is most commonly associated with mental simulation--counterfactual thinking. Then the authors consider how mental simulation plays a critical role in determining assimilative and contrastive responses to other type of comparisons. The chapter concludes with a presentation of a model of mental simulation-based comparison processes and describe its relationship (...)
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  43. A (Creative) Portrait of the Uncertain Individual: Self-Uncertainty and Individualism Enhance Creative Generation.Keith Markman, Kimberly Rios, Juliana Schroeder & Elizabeth Dyczewski - 2014 - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 40 (8):1050-1062.
    Building on findings that self-uncertainty motivates attempts to restore certainty about the self, particularly in ways that highlight one’s distinctiveness from others, we show that self-uncertainty, relative to uncertainty in general, increases creative generation among individualists. In Studies 1 to 3, high (but not low) individualists performed better on a creative generation task after being primed with self-uncertainty as opposed to general uncertainty. In Study 4, this effect emerged only among those who were told that the task measured creative as (...)
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  44.  59
    Counterfactuals Need Not be Comparative: The Case of “As If”.Keith D. Markman & Matthew N. McMullen - 2007 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30 (5-6):461-462.
    Byrne (2005) assumes that counterfactual thinking requires a comparison of facts with an imagined alternative. In our view, however, this assumption is unnecessarily restrictive. We argue that individuals do not necessarily engage in counterfactual simulations exclusively to evaluate factual reality. Instead, comparative evaluation is often suspended in favor of experiencing the counterfactual simulation as if it were real.
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