People Neglect Who They Really Are When Predicting Their Own Future Happiness [link]
post by Dreaded_Anomaly · 2011-01-15T21:32:36.050Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 2 commentsContents
2 comments
The scientists who conducted this interesting study...
found that our natural sunny or negative dispositions might be a more powerful predictor of future happiness than any specific event. They also discovered that most of us ignore our own personalities when we think about what lies ahead -- and thus miscalculate our future feelings.
2 comments
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comment by nazgulnarsil · 2011-01-16T14:35:05.585Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
people neglect their near selves in favor of their far selves when considering far goals.
Replies from: free_rip↑ comment by free_rip · 2011-01-25T07:23:57.700Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Their far selves will most likely have the same basic disposition, even if different circumstances. I think that's the point being made here: that people neglect to think of how they react to events, emotionally (eg. how happy they get when happy things happen) and only think of the events themselves. A future accountant may be happier than a future actor, but neither of them would guess it.