Predicting feelings

As well as predicting outcomes, we also anticipate how we are going to feel when those outcomes happen, This chapter discusses affective forecasting. These affective predictions are likely to be important in guiding our behaviour. There is evidence that people overestimate the strength of feeling that they will experience in response to future events, both positive and negative, although the conclusion that we are poor at judging our future feelings has been overstated. Those who are depressed do show lowered expectations of feeling good in future positive situations, something that is an important component in their of lack of motivation and engagement. Evidence about how depressed people actually do respond emotionally when situations do occur is very mixed. Similarly, studies examining whether those who are high in depression are more (or less) accurate, or are biased, in predicting their feelings have also produced mixed findings.