Regret doesn't track outcome severity alone — it tracks how unusual or deviating the action leading to that outcome was. Two people can end up with the exact same bad result, but the one who deviated from their normal routine, or who actively changed course, is consistently predicted (and reported) to feel more regret than the one who simply stayed the course and got the same unlucky result.
This asymmetry has a real, practical distortion built into it: since taking action tends to feel riskier from a regret standpoint than not taking action, people can be systematically biased toward inaction or toward sticking with a status quo, not because it's actually safer, but because it's regret-cheaper if things go wrong — a bias worth noticing precisely because it can masquerade as caution.
Participants were told two men were each robbed after picking up a hitchhiker — one man who almost never gives rides, and one who frequently does — and asked who would feel more regret. The large majority said the man who deviated from his normal routine would feel far more regret, even though the outcome (being robbed) was identical for both. A parallel study found the same pattern with money: 'Paul' owned stock in Company A, considered switching to Company B, decided against it, and lost money; 'George' owned stock in Company B, actively switched to Company A, and lost the exact same amount. Respondents overwhelmingly predicted George — who took the action that turned out badly — would feel far more regret than Paul, who simply failed to act, despite their financial outcomes being identical.