"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that
they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it
is, and the future less resolved than it will be" – Marcel Pagnol
Having studied how and why people make decisions, it was always interesting to explain our behavior. One of the most interesting things I learned was how our behavior is influenced by time. We have biases towards the past and future. Various studies have shown that people view the past through rose-colored glasses, remembering the nostalgic "back in the day" moments as positive and wonderful. An example of this is when we hear people say "you never regret something
that you did, you always regret something you don't do". This probably
has a lot to do with the fact that we view those memories with a slight optimistic bias.
On the other hand, the future may be perceived as uncertain and frightening. I always think it's good to keep these facts of human behavior in mind and make tons and tons of decision trees to properly weigh possibilities. Just kidding, but not completely!
No comments:
Post a Comment