Researchers conducted a series of studies where over a hundred college students chose and rated a variety of items, including chocolate, tea, and cookies. The chocolate was on a tray covered by a lid, and the tea and cookies were listed on a menu. The results: Those who closed the lid or menu after choosing an item were more satisfied with their choice in comparison to those who didn’t. Why? It’s called “choice closure,” a physical act of closure, like closing your menu or putting the lid back on the cookie jar, that triggers a person’s perception of the finality of their choice, says lead study author Yangjie Gu, a PhD candidate at London Business School. That means that you’re less likely to be satisfied with your decision if you didn’t finish your decision-making process by doing something that signals its completion. So can choice closure help you with more than being happy with your dinner order? “When a decision has been made to start a new job or end a relationship, rather than surrounding ourselves with memorabilia from the old job or relationship, it can be helpful to physically place these items in a memory box and start surrounding ourselves with images that encourage excitement about the possibilities that lie ahead,” says Tara Kraft, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Kansas. To Kraft, being satisfied in life—and living without regrets—involves removing the aspects that don’t encourage peace, joy, and excitement. “A ‘no regrets’ life is about actively choosing to notice and pay attention to the positives,” she says. For more tricks to living a life without so many “what ifs,” see No Regrets.
