Counterfactual thinking about controllable events

When people think about what might have been, they mentally undo controllab le rather than uncontrollable events. We report the results of two experime nts in which we examined this controllability effect in counterfactual thin king. The experiments show that the mutability of controllable events is in fluenced by the perceived appropriateness or inappropriateness of the event s. The first experiment shows that people change inappropriate controllable actions more than appropriate controllable ones. The second experiment sho ws that people mutate inappropriate controllable events whether the outcome is exceptional or normal with respect to intrapersonal habitual norms, and whether the outcome is positive or negative. We discuss the implications f or alternative theories of counterfactual thinking.