{
  "id": "regret.emotional",
  "term": "regret",
  "sense": "emotional",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 16,
  "arena": "self-model",
  "domain": "emotional",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "A self-model comparing the path taken against a parameter whose window included another path that was possible but not taken.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "window.range",
      "parameter.condition",
      "drift.aimless",
      "boundary.limit",
      "against.opposition",
      "compare.relation",
      "include.addition",
      "possible.potential",
      "self.personal",
      "take.acquisition"
    ],
    "interaction": "The self-model compares two possible paths within a parameter's range, one taken and one not, via a relation of opposition, producing awareness of a missed alternative the self could have acquired.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "awareness of missed alternatives",
      "self-directed evaluation of past options",
      "emotional weight of counterfactual comparison"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy after holding mortgage-backed securities that dropped to near-zero value.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in 1999 because engineers failed to convert pounds-force to newtons in trajectory calculations.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "In 1962, the New York Yankees chose not to start pitcher Ralph Terry in Game 7 of the World Series, then lost by one run.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "self-model.reflexive",
      "type": "is-a",
      "note": "regret is a type of self-model"
    },
    {
      "id": "window.range",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "regret arises when a viable path lies outside the realized window"
    },
    {
      "id": "drift.aimless",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "regret implies a choice; drift implies no direction"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "regret"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "retrofit:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      "Sample/abstract-concepts-as-ranges.md"
    ],
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Added missing constitutive concepts from definition: against.opposition, compare.relation, include.addition, possible.potential, self.personal, take.acquisition. The definition remains accurate and do"
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-regret.emotional"
}