People underestimate how quickly they will recover from setbacks, because they cannot anticipate their own rationalising.
Gilbert and Wilson's finding that people predict far longer misery from breakups, rejections and job losses than they actually experience. Daniel Gilbert the psychologist, unrelated to the Gilbert of Gilbert's Law.
In practice
- A candidate dreads a rejection they will barely think about six weeks later, and declines to apply because of the dread.
- Someone stays in a job they dislike because they cannot imagine adapting, and adapts within two months of leaving.
- Standing
- Daniel Gilbert the psychologist, unrelated to the Gilbert of Gilbert's Law.
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind