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emotion
You consistently overestimate how long you will feel hurt.
People regularly miscalculate the duration and intensity of their emotional reactions to future negative events.
In studies following major events, individuals predicted prolonged distress that failed to manifest in reality. They neglect to account for their internal resilience and the tendency to rationalize difficult circumstances. The impact of the event is almost always shorter than you anticipate.
Your future misery is likely less permanent than it feels today.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Gilbert, Pinel, Wilson, Blumberg, and Wheatley (1998)
- What the check found
- The citation correctly identifies the foundational 1998 paper by Gilbert et al. on immune neglect, which established that people overestimate the duration and intensity of their reactions to negative events.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.