Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting.
Abstract
People are generally unaware of the operation of the system of cognitive mechanisms that ameliorate their experience of negative affect (the psychological immune system), and thus they tend to overestimate the duration of their affective reactions to negative events. This tendency was demonstrated in 6 studies in which participants overestimated the duration of their affective reactions to the dissolution of a romantic relationship, the failure to achieve tenure, an electoral defeat, negative personality feedback, an account of a child's death, and rejection by a prospective employer. Participants failed to distinguish between situations in which their psychological immune systems would and would not be likely to operate and mistakenly predicted overly and equally enduring affective reactions in both instances. The present experiments suggest that people neglect the psychological immune system when making affective forecasts.
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If a person has been endowed with a life-changing event, their psychological immune system will 'kick in' and over time offset some or even all of the loss in SWB.
“For instance, if a person has been endowed with a life-changing event (e.g.disability and divorce), their psychological immune system will 'kick in' (Gilbert et al., 1998), and, over time, will offset some or even all of the loss in SWB.”
From Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments (2012) · cites this paper as Gilbert et al., 1998
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- Authors
- Gilbert, D. T., Pinel, E. C., Wilson, T. D., Blumberg, S. J., & Wheatley, T. P.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 1998
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 617-638
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W4255683652
- Cited by
- 1,547
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 43 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 119 · 2019: 80 · 2018: 55 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 53 · 2014: 61 · 2013: 76 · 2012: 62
- FWCI
- 13.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH056075)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- affective forecasting, immune system, emotion regulation
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Affect, Cognition, Female, Grief, Humans, Imagination, Male, Prejudice, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self Concept, Students, Time Factors
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