Several factors influence the adoption of health-protective behaviors, including anticipatory affective reactions like regret. The ability to anticipate regret matures with age, allowing individuals to make increasingly risk-averse decisions. This study examined the relationship between age and the adoption of health-protective behaviors to limit the spread of a virus from adolescence to adulthood, and the mediating effect of anticipated regret. A total of 410 French participants, aged 14 to 58, reported their compliance with health-protective behaviors (e.g. using surgical masks, handwashing, social distancing), along with their anticipated regret in the event of non-adherence to such behaviors leading to the contamination of themselves or others.

The findings revealed that both the adoption of these behaviors and anticipated regret increased with age. Moreover, anticipated regret mediated the effect of age on health-protective behavior, encouraging higher compliance with preventive measures and reducing risk-taking.