Prospection Anticipating Future Emotional States… …and Experiencing Emotional States in Time, and Remembering Emotional Experiences

Prospection The process of looking in the future and anticipating its result

Affective Forecasting Predicting future affective states, particularly its intensity and duration

Temporal Value Asymmetry Future events carry more weight (i.e., they are valued more) than past events St 1-5St 2a-2cSt 3 St 4 – People value future events more than past events (St 1-5), even though we know this is illogical (St 2a-2c) because it arouses more emotion (St 3), which prepares us for future self-relevant events (St 4)

Anticipation: Attenuate or Amplify Savor Dread Savor Dread Positive Event Negative Event Negative Event Attenuate “not that great” Amplify “awesome…I didn’t expect that! ” Amplify “ouch… I didn’t expect that! ” Attenuate “I was prepared for that ”

Consequences or Benefits of Anticipation GET NEGATIVE RESULTSGET POSITIVE RESULTS *Pre-events were significantly different from each other, post events were not

Consequences or Benefits of Anticipation negative There appears to be no affective benefits to anticipating future negative events (in the long run)

Rosy View Rosy Prospection The tendency for people to anticipate events more favorable than the actual experience at the time of the occurrence

Time & Experience of Emotion: “Time flies when you’re having fun”

Rosy View Rosy Retrospection The tendency for people to more fondly remember events in the past than they felt about the same event at the time of its occurrence

E MOTION & R ETRIEVAL P ROCESS Short Trial (60 s of 57°) Long Trial (60 s of 57° + 30 s of 59°) Repeat Short or Long Trial?

E MOTION & R ETRIEVAL P ROCESS Same experience in first few Ss Noticeably less discomfort in last few Ss Remembered longer trial as more pleasant, but knew it was longer People judge experience by peak and end

Rosy View Consistency Effect The phenomenon where people align their memories of an event with their expectations held prior to the event

Affective Forecasting Current Feelings influence recall of past events