Because the lack of a hangover is killer:
Kivetz interviewed 63 subjects and asked half of them to recall a time in the previous week when they had to choose between work or pleasure — and then to rank how they felt about their decision on a scale from “no regret at all” to “a lot of regret.” Then Kivetz asked the other half to do the same for a similar decision five years in the past. When the moment in question was a week before, those who worked industriously reported that they were glad they had. Those who partied said they regretted it. But when the subjects considered the decision from five years in the past, the propositions reversed: those who toiled regretted it; those who relaxed were happy with their choice.
Kivetz also interviewed 69 students from Columbia University who had returned one week previously from winter break and found that as a group they were split in roughly equal numbers between regret and contentment for having worked or partied. But when Kivetz talked to alumni who graduated 40 years earlier, the picture was much more lopsided: those who hadn't partied were bitter with regret, while those who had were now thrilled with their choice. “In the long run,” Kivetz says, “we inevitably regret being virtuous and wish we'd been bigger hedonists.”
On the other hand, the industrious set may end up in better jobs, with higher incomes, or a variety of other utility-maximizing outcomes. For instance: I spent a lot of time writing and blogging during college, and occasionally wish I'd forced myself into a more traditional college experience.
But I'm nostalgic for something I didn't want, and regretful about choices that offered me precisely what I did want. Had I liked partying with the people I knew during college, I would've partied with them more. And I adore my current job, life, and situation -- all of which are startlingly direct results of the choices I made during that period. Doesn't mean I don't watch an episode of Undeclared and wistfully wish I'd participated in a college experience I never wanted nor had access to, but those after-the-fact emotions aren't a good guide to what I should've done, at the time. Meanwhile, my current life is more college than college ever was: More late night bullshit sessions, more partying, more living in a too-messy house with a group of guy friends. And I guess, congruent with the good professor's research, I can't imagine how I'll ever regret this period.
