The Optimism Bias by Tali Sharot

Author:Tali Sharot [Sharot, Tali]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pantheon
Published: 2011-06-13T21:00:00+00:00

Anticipating the Fall Alters the Impact

A few years ago, I received a surprise birthday present from a friend—a tandem skydive. To be clear, I had never expressed any interest in jumping out of a plane in midair. Falling through the sky fifteen thousand feet from the ground, reaching speeds of approximately 120 miles per hour, was never on my wish list. All the same, that was exactly what I was about to do.

My friend initially intended for the skydive to be a surprise. I was to be driven to a ranch in upstate New York, where the skydiving school was located, and there my birthday gift would be revealed. After careful consideration, however, my friend decided it might be wise to let me get used to the idea of jumping from a plane in advance, so that I could prepare emotionally. Hence, the surprise was unveiled three days beforehand. I now had seventy-two hours to ponder the upcoming jump. Depending on your personal preferences, those seventy-two hours could be viewed as a time of pleasurable excitement or as days of pure dread—the latter was my experience. I was walking around town with a death sentence hanging over my head. I turned to the Internet for help.

Entering the words skydiving and perish on Google revealed that approximately thirty people die every year in the United States while skydiving. This may seem a large number at first; however, considering the 2.5 million jumps that take place in the United States every year, it is, in fact, a small percentage. A closer investigation revealed that death or serious injury from tandem jumps (jumps in which you are tied to an instructor, as I would be) are particularly rare. This was encouraging. Although I had experienced three days of stressful anticipation, having that time allowed me to acquire knowledge regarding the threatening event. My fear was reduced by the information I had gathered, allowing me to enjoy the experience more (yes, I admit I ended up taking pleasure in the rush of adrenaline).

Now, imagine all this had taken place pre-Google. In fact, imagine it had been impossible for me to gather any information on skydiving—that I had no access to anyone who had jumped before, or anyone who knew anything about the experience at all, and no statistics at hand. I would probably have spent three anxious days picturing the worst. Obviously, anticipating a potentially adverse event is unpleasant, but does it also affect the way we experience the event itself? Does the dread of a root canal make it more adverse? Does the fear of a shock make it more painful?

A neuroimaging study published in the journal Science in 2006 suggests this is the case. The scientists reported that people who dreaded an upcoming shock found the actual shock worse when they had to wait longer for it.11 In other words, if you are awfully anxious about getting that root canal, better do it as soon as possible. Not only will you avoid unpleasant anticipation, but the whole experience may seem less painful now than it would in a week.

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