patently the idea that “ the art of losing is n’t hard to surmount , ” is n’t just a poetic conceit . scientist doing studies on how people think they ’ll finger after disaster have find that hoi polloi have no idea how small it will affect them . Turns out we ’re all buy the farm to be a caboodle less deplorable than we expect .
You Have No Idea How wretched You ’ll Be
The above statement sounds like a threat , but it ’s actually a reassurance . When people think of how unhappy certain events will make them , they are rarely able to give good approximation . Generally , people retrieve that they will be stick in the moment of their acme sadness everlastingly . They do n’t understand that we bring around emotionally . This healing is compare by scientists to an resistant response to an infection . This healing mental process is so predictable , and so predictably ignored , that scientist call the fact that we do n’t take the healing into account “ immune neglect . ”

A grouping of researchers took a look at immune negligence in a serial of tests . They went for career letdown first , place out surveys to adjunct prof at universities , ask them to rank how happy they were , and how happy they expected to be if they were turned down for term of office . Those still await a decision expected that they would be far less felicitous if they were rejected . No doubt if any of them got the study the minute after they had been reject , they would be exactly that unhappy . However , the researchers also surveyed tenured and non - tenured citizenry over a distich of 10 years . They could get no major divergence in the happiness levels of those who had been take and those who had been rejected .
Continuing along the lines of banker’s acceptance and rejection , the researchers interviewed incoming college students about their romantic relationships . They asked the student who were in relationships how they imagined they would feel two months after being dumped . ( In a scrumptiously misanthropic move , the scientists determine on the two - month meter period because they knew that many the great unwashed had probably gotten underprice over the summer , and would have been single for around two month at the time of the sight . ) Again , hoi polloi expected they would be far more unhappy than anyone in that position really was .
A final examination take a political go . It can give io9 lector ammo for those deadening mass who talk about emigrate or seceding if their candidate of choice did n’t get elect . The investigator asked people involved with the campaigns how happy they predicted they would be one month after the election . Unsurprisingly , no one was as distressed as they expected to be .

Overall , the research worker found , that masses “ dramatically and consistently ” overestimated how unhappy they would be if things did n’t go their way . They were much more potential to overestimate their unhappiness at losing than their felicity at winning .
The Emotional Immune Response
There are a wad of reasons why hoi polloi are n’t live in perpetual unhappiness after rejection and disappointment . Much of the time , we simply over - judge how much something will hurt . We envision the bad potential scenario , and we foresee it happen all at once , instead of consider that it might take time , and that we might discover a way to compensate .

When we ca n’t compensate directly , the “ resistant reply ” kicks in . We rationalize why something happened , and when we do that , we feel adept . This rationalization is key . It ’s by thinking up reasons for our dashing hopes ( other than our dead inadequacy ) that we shake off the unhappiness and get on with our life . funnily , being victimized progress to us finger better .
When two groups of subjects were brought in for a personality test , one was told that their personality would be take apart by a data processor , while the other was told they would be canvass by a squad of scientists . After undergoing evaluation , they would get one of three profiles . A “ mundane ” profile used idiomatic expression like “ fair competent ” and “ few qualities that differentiate them from others . ” A second visibility was more flattering . The last profile openly used language like , “ exceptional ” and “ over-the-top . ” The case were all given the mundane profile , and enquire to rate their happiness levels five minutes afterwards . That must have been a fun five instant . After the five minutes were up , the citizenry who consider they had been score by computer were much well-chosen than those who believe that scientist had peered into their very soul and find it insignificant . Computers were just dull machines , and much more fallible than groups of other man . The worked up resistant response seized on that opening for error , and buoy the guinea pig ’s spirits .
Another two group of subjects were ask to come in to supposedly interview for a Book of Job . One group stimulate a committee asking them effective questions . The other got a undivided interviewer enunciate asking things like , “ Why did you pick your major ? ” Both group of content were refuse , but those who had had to answer questions that resembled boring and irrelevant chew the fat - up lines at a frat party feel less infelicitous , given 10 bit to retrieve , than the people who had been interviewed exhaustively and fairly . Being rejected for unjust rationality was well-off to take than being pass up for average grounds .

The Best Way to Screw It All Up
How to tumble masses back into a pit of despair ? The easy way is to tattle to them about their unfortunate situation . Everyone likes to hash things out when they ’re miserable , but once they ’ve recover , they do n’t want to be dragged back down . One coarse ailment among those with serious malady is champion occur by and bursting into tears , or wanting to talk about the malady and how lamentable they are . The patient , however serious their illness is , require to have as pleasant a time as they can , not be remind of their ill luck .
The fairer , but perhaps more unkind , style to issue someone down when they ’re back on their foot is to designate out the flaws in their self - justification . Reminding someone that they might have miscarry because they merit it , or they ’re not better off without their ex , or the plot was n’t rigged , eliminates their carefully - build Defense . Once someone has perplex it into their head that they were rejected from a job because the people doing the audience were stupefied , were using an unjust rubric , and were likely connect to the individual who got the job — allow them be . They ’re as happy as they ’re going to get .

[ ViaImmune Neglect , Affective Forecasting ]
PsychologyScience
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