Extreme events and happiness

Extreme events and happiness
Extreme positive and extreme negative events don't actually influence our long-term levels of happiness nearly as much as we think they would. But we have a strong tendency to overestimate the impact that extreme events will have on our lives.



Self Improvement


The Impact Bias

It's present when we tend to overestimate the length or intensity of happiness that major events will create. The Impact Bias is one example of affective forecasting, which is a social psychology phenomenon that refers to our generally terrible ability as humans to predict our future emotional states.




  • When we have a decision to make, it is recommended to solicit the views of people who have had the experience you're considering.
  • We can also ask the opinions of those around us since people tend to take a longer-term view when thinking about other people's choices.
  • The kind of questions we ask is also important. Instead of asking if you should take the new job, ask what they think your day-to-day life will be like if you take it.



Our ability to look into the future and think about what will make us most happy is the way that we get to a present that pleases us.

Any memory before the age of three is likely to be false or having some fictional details, while memories that are fluid, coherent and detailed, like watching a documentary, can also be made up.

But whether they are true or false, memories have the ability to bring us happiness and shared experiences with our loved ones.

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