People believe they'll be happy in the future, even when they imagine the many bad things that could happen, because they discount the possibility that those bad things will actually occur, according to a new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
"I've always been fascinated by the changeability of people's perceptions of happiness," says psychological scientist Ed O'Brien of the University of Michigan. "On some days our futures seem bright and exciting, but on other days the same exact future event can feel stressful and terrifying."
With this new research, O'Brien wanted to explore whether fluency -- how easy or difficult it feels to think about different events -- might play a role in how people think about well-being.
He conducted five studies, asking participants to complete online surveys with questions that addressed past and possible future experiences and perceptions of well-being.
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