I wonder if you still remember the heart-wrenching scene in the movie “Tangshan Earthquake”:
One son and one daughter are pressed under a slate at the same time, but you can only choose to save one of them, and to save one is to give up the other.
If it were you, what would you do?
At this time, faced with such a dilemma, you may have a very inhuman thought in your heart: it would be better if one of them died.
Although this idea goes against the mother’s nature and morals, it really exists in such a difficult moment. How did this contradictory psychological phenomenon arise, and how should it be explained?
Destroy it, hurry up, tired
Professor Kate Barasz of Oxford University has done 9 related researches on this psychological state: whether breast cancer is receiving chemotherapy, whether ligament strain is removed, whether childbirth is performed by caesarean section, etc. People’s expectations for diagnostic results [1].
This is especially typical in studies of breast cancer patients: when a malignancy has been diagnosed, but not yet detected as moderate or severe, you are faced with two different scenarios— ―
One, the result is severe, there is still a great risk of recurrence after surgery, and the doctor will strongly recommend chemotherapy;
Second, moderate, the recurrence rate after surgery is low, so you can choose whether to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can further reduce the recurrence rate, but it has strong side effects on the body and the process is very uncomfortable. So if there is no recurrence without chemotherapy, wouldn’t the choice of chemotherapy be in vain?
Obviously, milder ailments should be naturally desired by the patient. However, the results of the study show that: people generally desire the worse outcome.
Why do people prefer to be seriously ill?
In fact, this is the paradoxical tendency to hope for worse news in psychological principles, which refers to the When making difficult decisions, they would prefer to hear relatively bad news to avoid difficult decisions.
Simply put, people would rather accept a very poor outcome than choose one of two poor outcomes and take responsibility for their choices.
For example, when the green line of the fund you bought appears all the way up again, do you want it to drop a small step, or do you hope that it simply falls to the limit and explodes?
If it is a small step, do you take this opportunity to quickly throw a timely stop loss, or increase your buying and frantically cover your positions? – This is of course related to how conservative you are, but whether you choose to be conservative or not, the premise is that you have awareness of the responsibility you will have and the above medical decisions for your own health. Responsibilities are similar—responsibility for one’s own assets.
This is the so-called decision avoidance, which refers to people’s unwillingness to take responsibility for the outcome of a decision and try to avoid it. Therefore, when faced with a dilemma, people will long for God to directly announce the worse outcome, to avoid the tangled decision, and to relieve themselves of the responsibility for the decision-making process.
To sum up in one sentence: destroy it, hurry up, tired.
Everything has exceptions
Speaking of this, you should already understand: oh~ I want to avoid responsibility~
But do people prefer bad news under all circumstances?
Of course not! Professor Barasz’s research found that “bad news preference” occurs when subjectively facing difficult choices. That is, only choices that make you toss and turn and struggle with your baldness lead to a tendency to want worse news.
This is obvious. For example, after dating a blind date/friendship partner, you may struggle with whether you should keep in touch to express your affection. This is also a dilemma: if the other party has no idea of continuing to develop, it will be an embarrassing moment of social death; but if the other party has this intention, but because you did not take the initiative to ask questions and miss a good relationship?
At this point you can easily understand the purpose of this exampleYes: this is obviously a lot less difficult. There is a high probability that you will tend to the positive result and contact you, because the price of failure is just embarrassment. For love, it is worth it! (Of course, if you are a patient of deep social phobia, when I didn’t say it)
Please be brave to open Pandora’s box
Discussing this, you might ask: Is this bad news bias good for people? Is it really okay to be so irresponsible to yourself?
First, Don’t be too quick to criticize yourself for being irresponsible, this “bad news bias” is a normal psychological phenomenon.
Secondly, we should also be aware of the possible negative effects of this preference – bad news preference may give policymakers perverse incentives , for example, people may be more inclined to directly give up opportunities to improve and become better, which is what we usually call “rotten”~
When the male protagonist’s fiancée in “Desert Island” chose to believe that the protagonist of the plane crash was dead and married, she gave up waiting for the tiny chance of survival, but at the same time she gave up It is possible for the male protagonist to go home smoothly because of persistent rescue. With a non-judgmental attitude, we believe in her kindness and believe that we might make the same decision in that dilemma.
But what Xuetangjun wants to emphasize is that Pandora’s box will be opened sooner or later. I just hope that when the splendid and beautiful rays of light appear, you can face any outcome calmly because you understand this natural psychological phenomenon of human beings. And in the face of this good or bad fact, you can work hard, actively, and unswervingly to make the choice that you don’t have to escape – grow up in the sun, and live up to one life.
Romain Rolland said: “There is only one true heroism in the world, and that is to love life after knowing the truth of life.” When faced with a bleak reality, it is indeed difficult Continue to have the courage and enthusiasm, just want to rot. Just like in the face of the raging epidemic now, I think everyone will inevitably feel tired, disappointed and even angry. Xuetangjun here just wants to say to everyone, no matter how difficult it is, don’t give up hope, the world and I love you.
References
Barasz, K., & Hagerty, S. F. (2021). Hoping for the Worst? A Paradoxical Preference for Bad News. Journal of Consumer Research, 48(2), 270-288.< /p>
Author | MR.
Edit | Ah Mou
Beauty Editor | Zene