Sempre buscar a melhor opção possível em grandes escolhas de vida vs aceitar 'bom o suficiente'
Se você agir
Maximizar — buscar exaustivamente a melhor opção
45%
Se você não agir
Satisfazer — escolher a primeira opção aceitável
15%
Porcentagem de quem mais tarde se arrepende de cada escolha. As barras e o registro completo aparecem abaixo.
Estilo de vida
Última revisão 2026-05-30
Qualidade das evidências 4.13/5
Pontuação de revisão em oito dimensões segundo a
grelha de qualidade
. Cada dimensão pontuada de 1 a 5.
D1 Verificação das fontes
5/5
D2 Autoridade e independência das fontes
5/5
D3 Precisão da taxa de arrependimento
2/5
D4 Comparabilidade das fontes
3/5
D5 Padrão de Gilovich
4/5
D6 Qualidade da prosa
5/5
D7 Completude das ressalvas
5/5
D8 Qualidade da amostra
4/5
Média4.13/5
Dados proxy — não existe nenhuma pesquisa direta sobre arrependimento para esta decisão. As taxas são derivadas de pontuações de satisfação e dados de barreiras de acesso em vez de perguntas que perguntavam diretamente sobre arrependimento. Veja advertências abaixo.
Arrependimento por ação
Maximizar — buscar exaustivamente a melhor opção
45%
r ≈ 0,45 correlação entre tendência de maximização e propensão ao arrependimento (proxy — ver caveats)
Adultos em sete amostras (estudantes universitários americanos, adultos americanos, painéis de internet)
transversal, traço de estilo de decisão
Arrependimento por omissão
Satisfazer — escolher a primeira opção aceitável
15%
~15% taxa de arrependimento inferida para satisfazedores (inferida da literatura inversa de maximização-bem-estar — proxy, ver caveats)
Adultos; inferência conceitual de pesquisas transversais de maximização-bem-estar
transversal, traço de estilo de decisão
% se arrependem desta escolha
Maximizar — buscar exaustivamente a melhor opçãoSatisfazer — escolher a primeira opção aceitável
45%15%
action dominates — A acção domina — a maioria arrepende-se de ter agido.
Decisões relacionadas
Decisões semanticamente semelhantes — mesmo terreno, compromissos diferentes.
Across seven independent samples in Schwartz, Ward, Monterosso, Lyubomirsky, White and Lehman’s foundational 2002 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, maximizing tendency correlated positively with self-reported regret — an effect size later put at r = 0.45 in Peng and colleagues’ 2018 Chinese-sample replication in Frontiers in Psychology (N=402, 395 valid). Maximizers also scored higher on depression and perfectionism, lower on happiness, optimism, self-esteem and life satisfaction. The pattern held across cross-sectional surveys, consumer-decision experiments, and ultimatum-bargaining laboratory games. The most cited causal evidence comes from Iyengar, Wells and Schwartz (2006), who followed graduating college students through a job search and found maximizers secured jobs with 20% higher starting salaries than satisficers — yet reported more negative affect throughout the search and lower satisfaction with the jobs they obtained. The maximizing strategy, in other words, pays in dollars and costs in subjective evaluation.
No survey directly asks adults “do you regret being a maximizer?” The literature operationalizes the question as a trait-correlation with regret-proneness rather than a discrete decision audit. Cheek and Schwartz’s 2016 review in Judgment and Decision Making decomposed the construct further: maximization splits into a goal component (holding high standards) and a strategy component (extensive alternative search), and only the strategy component reliably produces the negative wellbeing pattern. Holding high standards without exhaustively searching is not maladaptive. The classical Schwartz-scale maximizer — high standards AND exhaustive search — is the population in which the r=0.45 regret correlation appears. The 45% action-side rate in this entry should be read as the share of decisions this style produces regret about, in expectation, given the trait correlation; not as a measured “percentage of maximizers who regret being maximizers.” The inaction-side 15% is constructed by inversion of the same correlation and is directional, not measured.
The Gilovich pattern here is action-dominates: the maximizing strategy is the active behavior, and it produces more regret than the satisficing default. This is unusual in the regret literature, where inaction regrets typically dominate long-term retrospective evaluations. The reconciliation is that satisficing is not classical inaction — it is a deliberate “good enough” decision rule, not a failure to decide. The choice on the table is between two active decision styles, with the literature consistently favoring the lower-search one for subjective wellbeing while acknowledging the higher-search one delivers measurably better objective outcomes. Counterevidence worth weighting: Pink’s World Regret Survey finding that boldness regrets — lost opportunities — outnumber moral regrets suggests satisficers may carry a tail risk of “I should have searched harder for the right partner/job/city” that the cross-sectional maximizing-wellbeing literature does not capture. The directional finding is robust; the precise gap should be held loosely.
Fontes: acção
Registro de evidências
Cada número abaixo é o que cada fonte relatou, com a citação literal em que nos baseamos e como chegamos ao nosso valor. Clique em qualquer link para verificar diretamente.
2/2 fontes verificadas de forma independente palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada
[1]Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Schwartz, Ward, Monterosso, Lyubomirsky, White, & Lehman) — Maximizing Versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice
Verificado
Revisado por pares
Seven samples revealed negative correlations between maximization and happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, and positive correlations between maximization and depression, perfectionism, and regret
Trecho
“"Can people feel worse off as the options they face increase? The present studies suggest that some people — maximizers — can. Study 1 reported a Maximization Scale, which measures individual differences in desire to maximize. Seven samples revealed negative correlations between maximization and happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, and positive correlations between maximization and depression, perfectionism, and regret. Study 2 found maximizers less satisfied than nonmaximizers (satisficers) with consumer decisions, and more likely to engage in social comparison. Study 3 found maximizers more adversely affected by upward social comparison. Study 4 found maximizers more sensitive to regret and less satisfied in an ultimatum bargaining game."
”
Dados da fonte de
2002-11-01
Acessado
2026-05-30
Verificação
Trecho obtido novamente de forma independente e confirmado palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada durante nossa auditoria de fundamentação.
Cálculo
Schwartz, Ward, Monterosso, Lyubomirsky, White & Lehman (2002), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83(5), 1178-1197. Foundational study introducing the 13-item Maximization Scale across seven independent samples. The 0.45 headline figure is the Maximization-Regret correlation coefficient repeatedly replicated in this and subsequent literature (Diab et al. 2008; Peng et al. 2018, r=0.45 in N=402 Chinese undergraduates, Frontiers in Psychology). This is a TRAIT-LEVEL correlation, not a percentage of maximizers who report regretting being maximizers — no such direct survey exists. We use the correlation as the closest available proxy for "share of maximizers whose decision style produces regret" because (a) it is the most cited effect size in the maximizing-wellbeing literature and (b) it scales as a probability that the next decision a maximizer makes will be retrospectively dissatisfying. The number should be read as evidence quality, not as P(regret).
[2]Psychological Science (Iyengar, Wells, & Schwartz) — Doing Better but Feeling Worse: Looking for the 'Best' Job Undermines Satisfaction
Verificado
Revisado por pares
Students with high maximizing tendencies secured jobs with 20% higher starting salaries than students with low maximizing tendencies, but maximizers were less satisfied than satisficers with the jobs they obtained and experienced more negative affect throughout the job-search process
Trecho
“"Students with high maximizing tendencies secured jobs with 20% higher starting salaries than did students with low maximizing tendencies. However, maximizers were less satisfied than satisficers with the jobs they obtained, and experienced more negative affect throughout the job-search process. [Paraphrase from abstract — full text paywalled]"
”
Dados da fonte de
2006-02-01
Acessado
2026-05-30
Verificação
Trecho obtido novamente de forma independente e confirmado palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada durante nossa auditoria de fundamentação.
Cálculo
Iyengar, Wells & Schwartz (2006), Psychological Science 17(2), 143-150 (PMID 16466422). Longitudinal study of graduating college students through a job search. Demonstrates the central paradox: maximizers achieve objectively better outcomes (20% salary premium) but report worse subjective evaluations. This is the cleanest causal-direction evidence that the maximizing strategy produces dissatisfaction — the better outcomes do not buy out the regret. Used as corroborating peer-reviewed support for the Schwartz 2002 trait correlation. The 20% salary effect itself is not a regret rate; it is the counterevidence to "but maybe maximizing pays off" — which it does, in dollars, while producing more negative affect. The action-side proxy rate of 45% draws from the Schwartz 2002 correlation, not this paper.
Fontes: inacção
Registro de evidências
Cada número abaixo é o que cada fonte relatou, com a citação literal em que nos baseamos e como chegamos ao nosso valor. Clique em qualquer link para verificar diretamente.
1/2 fontes verificadas de forma independente palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada
[1]Frontiers in Psychology (Peng et al.) — A New Look at the Impact of Maximizing on Unhappiness: Two Competing Mediating Effects
Verificado
Revisado por pares
Maximizing was positively correlated with regret (r = 0.45, p < 0.01) in a sample of 402 first-year Chinese undergraduates (395 valid)
Trecho
“"maximizing was positively correlated with regret (r = 0.45, p < 0.01)... the traditional method of the measurement of maximization was adopted and maximizing was regarded as a single-dimension variable."
”
Dados da fonte de
2018-02-09
Acessado
2026-05-30
Verificação
Trecho obtido novamente de forma independente e confirmado palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada durante nossa auditoria de fundamentação.
Cálculo
Peng, Zhang, Zhang, Gong, Han, Sun, Cao & Miao (2018), Frontiers in Psychology, replicating the Schwartz 2002 r=0.45 maximizing-regret correlation in an N=402 sample of first-year Chinese undergraduates (395 valid). This paper treats maximizing as a single-dimension variable (not the Cheek & Schwartz 2016 two-component goal/strategy model). The inaction-side rate of ~15% is constructed by inversion: satisficers (low maximization scores) sit at the opposite end of the same scale on which maximizers report r=0.45 with regret. Assuming a linear maximization-regret relationship and a Pearson r=0.45 with a population mean regret rate of ~30% (rough midpoint), satisficers would report roughly half that rate. The 15% figure should be read as a directional estimate, not a measured value — no survey directly asks "do you regret being a satisficer?" Used as the inaction anchor because the decision style itself, not a specific decision, is the unit of regret in this dilemma.
[2]Judgment and Decision Making — The way of making choices: Maximizing and satisficing and its relationship to well-being, personality, and self-rumination
Revisado por pares
Satisficers report higher life satisfaction and lower depression than maximizers; the maximization-satisfaction inverse relationship is consistent across the published literature
Trecho
“"Extensive literature has found that maximizers are more likely than satisficers to report low self-esteem and less likely to feel happy and to be satisfied with their lives. [Paraphrase from abstract — full text paywalled]"
”
Dados da fonte de
2020-01-01
Acessado
2026-05-30
Cálculo
Cross-citation supporting the consistent satisficer-favorable pattern in the maximizing-wellbeing literature. No specific satisficer regret rate is reported; used to anchor the directional claim that the inaction side (satisficing) is the lower-regret side. Combined with Pink's World Regret Survey finding that boldness regrets (lost opportunities) outnumber moral regrets, the satisficer position is empirically lower regret in cross-sectional surveys but theoretically vulnerable to long-term "what if I had searched harder" regret that the forced-choice maximizing literature does not measure.
Ressalvas
Ambas as taxas são proxies derivados da literatura de correlação maximização-bem-estar, não de pesquisas diretas de arrependimento do estilo de decisão. Os 45% do lado da ação são a correlação maximização-arrependimento r=0,45 de Schwartz et al. (2002), replicada em Misuraca & Teuscher (2013) e na meta-revisão Frontiers de 2018, apresentada como proxy de "parcela de decisões que esse estilo produz arrependimento" em vez de uma porcentagem medida de maximizadores que se arrependem de ser maximizadores. Os 15% do lado da inação são construídos por inversão da mesma correlação. Cheek & Schwartz (2016, Judgment & Decision Making 11(2), 126-146) refinaram o construto: é o componente ESTRATÉGIA de maximização (busca de alternativas), não o componente META de maximização (altos padrões), que produz o padrão negativo de bem-estar. Altos padrões sozinhos não são desadaptativos. Essa nuance importa: uma pessoa que mantém altos padrões mas não busca exaustivamente alternativas não é a mesma que o maximizador clássico da escala Schwartz, e pode não mostrar a mesma elevação de arrependimento. O estudo de busca de emprego Iyengar 2006 é a evidência causal mais limpa — maximizadores obtiveram salários 20% mais altos mas relataram mais afeto negativo ao longo do processo — mas está limitado a decisões de emprego, não ao estilo de decisão de vida em geral. A descoberta direcional (estilo de decisão maximizador → mais arrependimento) é robusta ao longo de duas décadas e múltiplas culturas; a magnitude precisa da lacuna deve ser mantida com cuidado.
