Constructing One's Reality: Perceived Control and Counterfactual Thinking in a Post-Truth Era

Abstract

In a "post-truth" era, decision-making is often guided by emotional appeal and personal belief rather than objective facts.As a result, researchers have begun to examine how individual differences in attribution influence those processes.Previous research has demonstrated that people are predisposed to feelings of control over their environment and engage in internal control strategies when feelings of threat arise.Similarly, a common response to adverse situations is counterfactual thinking (i.e., thinking about how reality might differ if alternative decisions were made).As a result, this study examined the relationship between internal control strategies and counterfactual thinking.Results indicate that perceived control of the attribution process predicted counterfactual thinking.Details and implications are discussed.

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