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Avoidant But Not Avoiding: The Mediational Role of Anticipated Regret in Police Decision-making

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Abstract

Police officers make significant stress-inducing decisions daily. Given the influence of emotions on police work, we examine the impact of anticipated regret on the decision-making process using a cross-cultural sample. Officers were asked to hypothetically make one of two job-related decisions of varying degrees of severity: shoot a threatening suspect (or not), or issue a speeding ticket (or not). Participants’ avoidant decision-making style, feelings of anticipated regret and predicted actions were analyzed. Results supported the mediated influence of anticipated regret on the relationship between avoidant decision-making style and avoidant decisions. Decision quality was also explored as an outcome which revealed a similar mediating influence of anticipated regret. While we found no significant cross-cultural outcome differences, we did notice differences regarding the use of avoidant decision-making style between the two samples. Implications are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We thank Scott Highhouse for this recommendation after reviewing a previous version of this manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Scott Highhouse for his comments on a previous version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 N Kenmore Ave., Chicago, Illinois, 60614, USA

    Shanique G. Brown

  2. Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Chicago, IL, 62025, USA

    Catherine S. Daus

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  1. Shanique G. Brown
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  2. Catherine S. Daus
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Correspondence to Shanique G. Brown.

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Brown, S., Daus, C. Avoidant But Not Avoiding: The Mediational Role of Anticipated Regret in Police Decision-making. J Police Crim Psych 31, 238–249 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-015-9185-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-015-9185-2

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