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Many of us struggle to find real happiness. Why is that? Studies in psychology suggest that part of the reason is that most of us are very bad at predicting how we’ll react when faced with many of life’s experiences. Consequently, we end up making choices that are potentially harmful to our emotional well-being. According to Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, we tend to overestimate, by a long way, the extent and duration of the emotional impacts of, say, a pay rise, the death of a loved one, or even moving to an area that’s sunny all year round. This is simply because, when we’re trying to imagine how an experience will affect us emotionally, we tend to focus too much of our attention on the most salient features of the experience in question.
很多人难以找到真正的幸福。原因何在?心理学研究显示,这在一定程度上是因为,我们大多数人都非常不擅长预测:当面对诸多生活经历时,自己会做何反应?因此,我们最终会做出可能有害于自己情感健康的选择。哈佛大学(Harvard)心理学家丹•吉尔伯特(Dan Gilbert)表示,我们往往会高估——而且是明显高估——某种经历对我们情绪影响的程度与持续时间,比如加薪、挚爱的人去世、甚至搬往某个一年到头阳光明媚的地方居住。这完全是因为,当我们试图想象某种经历会对我们的情绪产生何种影响时,我们往往会将注意力过多地集中在所讨论经历最突出的一些特征上。 |
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