Porcentaje de quienes luego se arrepienten de cada elección. Las barras y el registro completo aparecen abajo.
Salud
Última revisión 2026-05-10
Calidad de la evidencia 3.5/5
Puntuación de revisión en ocho dimensiones según la
rúbrica de calidad
. Cada dimensión puntuada de 1 a 5.
D1 Verificación de fuentes
4/5
D2 Autoridad e independencia de las fuentes
4/5
D3 Precisión de la tasa de arrepentimiento
2/5
D4 Comparabilidad de las fuentes
3/5
D5 Patrón de Gilovich
4/5
D6 Calidad de la prosa
4/5
D7 Completitud de las advertencias
4/5
D8 Calidad de la muestra
3/5
Media3.5/5
Datos sustitutos — no existe ninguna encuesta directa sobre el arrepentimiento para esta decisión. Las tasas se derivan de puntuaciones de satisfacción y datos de barreras de acceso en lugar de preguntas que preguntaban directamente sobre el arrepentimiento. Ver advertencias más abajo.
Arrepentimiento por acción
Hacerse un piercing
32%
32% de los estadounidenses con piercings reporta algún arrepentimiento
Adultos estadounidenses con un piercing corporal, encuesta en línea
retrospectivo, sin marco temporal fijo
Arrepentimiento por inacción
No hacerse un piercing
8,0%
~8% (proxy construido — no existe encuesta directa de arrepentimiento por inacción)
Adultos estadounidenses sin piercings corporales, estimado
retrospectivo, sin marco temporal fijo
% que se arrepienten de esta elección
Hacerse un piercingNo hacerse un piercing
32%8,0%
action dominates — Domina la acción — la mayoría se arrepiente de actuar.
Decisiones relacionadas
Decisiones semánticamente similares — mismo terreno, distintos compromisos.
About 32% of Americans who have a body piercing report some regret,
according to a 2017 Statista survey — the complement of the 68% who said
they had no regrets. The regret rate is uneven by gender: only 22% of
pierced women reported regret versus a substantially higher share among
men — plausibly because men more often choose piercings that later close
or are removed (ear stretching, industrial, septum) rather than the simple
ear piercings that dominate among women. A 2011 BMC Public Health
peer-reviewed survey of European undergraduates found that 13% of body-art
recipients reported complications — infections, keloids, allergic
reactions — a common driver of removal and dissatisfaction across
populations. On the inaction side, no published survey directly
asks non-pierced adults whether they regret not having a piercing. The 8%
inaction proxy is a conservative estimate anchored below the tattoo inaction
proxy (15%) because the lower permanence of piercings reduces the barrier
to future action.
The psychology of piercing regret fits a modified version of the Gilovich
and Medvec action-dominates pattern. Piercings are far more reversible
than tattoos — most close within weeks if the jewelry is removed — yet
action regret still runs higher in the available data. The asymmetry most
likely reflects the social visibility of piercings during the period of
wear: an industrial piercing or nose ring that attracts negative reactions
at work or from family creates immediate, concrete negative feedback that
sustains regret even after the hole closes. Inaction regret for piercings
is structurally low because the option remains open — a non-pierced adult
can act at any time, which defuses the counterfactual. This “open option”
effect is a well-documented suppressor of inaction regret in Gilovich’s
research: regret is highest when the path is permanently closed.
The main caveat is the quality of the evidence. The 32% action figure is
from a Statista survey with opaque methodology — question wording,
sampling frame, and weighting are not publicly documented. The 8% inaction
figure is a constructed proxy, not a finding. Because the two sides rely on
different measurement approaches, the delta (0.24) should be read as
indicating that action regret is substantially higher than inaction regret,
not as a precise quantitative ratio. The peer-reviewed literature on
piercing focuses on complications and health outcomes rather than regret
per se; a large-scale, nationally representative survey with a direct regret
question on both sides would substantially improve the evidence base for
this entry.
Fuentes: acción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
1/2 fuentes verificadas de forma independiente palabra por palabra frente a la fuente citada
[1]Statista (Statista Survey) — United States -- regretting body piercings in 2017
Verificado
Fuente de referencia
68% of Americans with piercings said they have no regrets; approximately 32% reported some regret
Extracto
“"68 percent of respondents said they have no regrets having a piercing. Among respondents aged 18 to 29, 67 percent said they have no regrets having one. Among female respondents, 78 percent said they have no regrets having one."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2017-06-22
Accedido
2026-05-10
Verificación
Extracto recuperado de forma independiente y confirmado palabra por palabra frente a la fuente citada durante nuestra auditoría de fundamentación.
Cálculo
Statista Survey conducted June 22, 2017. The 32% figure is the complement of the 68% who reported no regret (68% overall no-regret is stated on the source page; the 32% action-regret rate is derived as its complement). The exact sample size is not disclosed on the public (non-paywalled) Statista page, so no source-attributed n is claimed here. Used directly as action-regret rate. Note: the source's 78% no-regret rate among women implies a female regret rate of ~22%; the overall 32% is skewed by higher male regret. Men more commonly get piercings that later close or are removed (ear stretching, industrial, septum), which may drive the higher regret rate in this sample.
[2]BMC Public Health — Body piercing and tattoos: a survey on young adults' knowledge of the risks and practices in body art
Revisado por pares
Among 1,598 Italian university freshmen, 29% had at least one piercing or tattoo, and 13.2% of those with body art reported complications after the procedure
Extracto
“"Of the 1.598 sample, 463 (29%) have at least one piercing or tattoo. [...] Sixty-one (13.2%) of the interviewees who underwent body art had had complications after it."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2011-10-14
Accedido
2026-07-01
Cálculo
BMC Public Health 2011 peer-reviewed survey of 1,598 freshmen at the University of Bari, Italy (academic year 2009-2010, 96.5% response rate). Not a US sample and does not directly report a US regret rate. Used as corroborating evidence that piercing complications (infection, keloids, allergic reactions) are a common driver of removal and dissatisfaction across populations -- 13.2% of body-art recipients reported complications -- consistent with the Statista US action-side finding.
Fuentes: inacción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
1/2 fuentes verificadas de forma independiente palabra por palabra frente a la fuente citada
[1]Statista (Statista Survey) — United States -- regretting body piercings in 2017
Fuente de referencia
Among US adults with piercings, 68% report no regret; data does not include inaction-side direct measurement
Extracto
“"68 percent of respondents said they have no regrets having a piercing. Among respondents aged 18 to 29, 67 percent said they have no regrets having one."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2017-06-22
Accedido
2026-05-10
Cálculo
No published survey directly asks non-pierced adults whether they regret not getting a piercing. The 8% inaction estimate is a conservative constructed proxy. Piercings are far more reversible than tattoos -- most close within weeks to months if removed -- which substantially lowers the inaction-regret burden compared to the tattoo entry. The proxy is anchored below the tattoo inaction proxy (15%) because the barrier to trying piercings is lower than for tattoos, meaning fewer non-pierced adults are likely to harbour strong lasting regret about not having acted.
[2]Journal of the American Osteopathic Association — Body art: attitudes and practices regarding body piercing among urban undergraduates
Verificado
Revisado por pares
Among 100 urban undergraduates with usable surveys, 56% reported having a body piercing at one time; nonpierced participants estimated the probability of an adverse event at 43% versus 30% among pierced participants
Extracto
“"One hundred (97%) out of the 103 surveys distributed had sufficient data for analysis. Fifty-six percent of participants (age range, 17 to 25 years) reported having a body piercing at one time."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2007-10-01
Accedido
2026-07-01
Verificación
Extracto recuperado de forma independiente y confirmado palabra por palabra frente a la fuente citada durante nuestra auditoría de fundamentación.
Cálculo
JAOA 2007 peer-reviewed study of 103 urban undergraduates (100 usable surveys). Provides context on the non-pierced side: nonpierced participants estimated the probability of an adverse event higher (43%) than pierced participants did (30%), suggesting non-pierced individuals perceive piercing as riskier rather than harbouring unfulfilled desire. Used to keep the inaction-regret proxy low. This is a US convenience sample of undergraduates, not a nationally representative adult sample, and it does not measure regret about not getting a piercing directly.
Advertencias
La cifra del 32% lado acción proviene de una encuesta Statista de 2017, y la metodología subyacente (composición de la muestra, formulación de preguntas, marco de muestreo) no está completamente documentada en la descripción pública de Statista. La cifra del 32% representa el complemento de "sin arrepentimientos" y puede capturar insatisfacción leve así como arrepentimiento fuerte — una interpretación más amplia que una pregunta directa de "¿se arrepiente de esto?". El 8% lado inacción es un proxy marcador de posición construido: ninguna encuesta de muestra grande pregunta directamente a adultos sin piercings si se arrepienten de no tener uno. La cifra del 8% debe leerse como una estimación de orden de magnitud, no un hallazgo. El delta (0,24) refleja la asimetría de la evidencia más que una comparación precisa. Los piercings difieren de los tatuajes en una forma clave: la reversibilidad. La mayoría de los piercings cierran en semanas o meses, lo que significa que la vía de arrepentimiento por acción (marca visible, reacción social, infección) es menos permanente que para los tatuajes. A pesar de esto, el arrepentimiento por acción todavía domina en los datos disponibles, consistente con el patrón para modificaciones corporales visibles que conllevan costos de señalización social en contextos profesionales o familiares. Los datos de encuesta provienen de muestras estadounidenses y europeas; las tasas de arrepentimiento en culturas con normas diferentes sobre piercings corporales — incluyendo culturas donde el piercing de orejas se hace en la infancia — pueden diferir sustancialmente.
