The Peculiar Longevity of Things Not So Bad
作者研究了人们为何会错误预测负面情绪的持续时间。他们提出，强烈的情绪会触发心理机制来减弱它，因此强烈情绪可能比温和情绪消退得更快，但人们意识不到这一点。通过三个实验，作者发现：参与者预测自己越讨厌一个冒犯者，这种讨厌会持续越久（研究1）；预测被伤害越深，讨厌持续越久，但实际相反（研究2）；预测自己被伤害比他人被伤害更讨厌，但实际相反（研究3）。这些错误预测是“区域-贝塔悖论”这一更普遍现象的例子。
Intense hedonic states trigger psychological processes that are designed to attenuate them, and thus intense states may abate more quickly than mild states. Because people are unaware of these psychological processes, they may mistakenly expect intense states to last longer than mild ones. In Study 1, participants predicted that the more they initially disliked a transgressor, the longer their dislike would last. In Study 2, participants predicted that their dislike for a transgressor who hurt them a lot would last longer than their dislike for a transgressor who hurt them a little, but precisely the opposite was the case. In Study 3, participants predicted that their dislike for a transgressor who hurt them a lot would last longer than their dislike for a transgressor who hurt someone else a lot, but precisely the opposite was the case. These errors of prediction are discussed as instances of a more general phenomenon known as the region-beta paradox.