Counterfactual relief

Some theoretical accounts of relief distinguish between temporal relief, experienced due to the ending of an aversive episode, and counterfactual relief, experienced because an aversive outcome was avoided. Recent results suggest that the prototypical relief experience has both elements: the avoidance of an aversive outcome and the ending of a period of anxiety regarding that outcome. This result is consistent with an alternative theoretical approach that all instances of relief necessarily have a temporal precursor, with the aversive experience that comes to an end in the prototypical case being the cessation of anxiety. We examined whether people experience counterfactual relief in the absence of a prior period of anxiety and whether such instances differ markedly in intensity from instances of counterfactual relief involving anxiety cessation. In Study 1 (N = 238) participants readily described instances of purely counterfactual relief when directed. In Studies 2 (N = 38) and 3 (N = 98), participants’ attributions of relief in cases with purely counterfactual precursors were comparable to their attributions when there was also a temporal precursor. These results suggest that purely counterfactual relief is experienced in everyday life and that the intensity of the relief experienced is of the same order as that of counterfactual relief that is preceded by anxiety cessation.