Identify the other things that will also be true of your future life

Focalism makes future events seem bigger than they are by ignoring all the other things that will still be present.

Why it works

Impact bias partly operates through focalism: when we imagine a future event, we focus almost entirely on that event and neglect the rest of our future life — the ongoing projects, relationships, satisfactions, and frustrations that will still be present. This makes the focal event seem to dominate future emotional life in ways it never actually does.

How to do it

1. After imagining a future good or bad event, write a list of ten other things that will also be true of your life at that time.
2. Include ordinary things: work, relationships, routines, small pleasures and frustrations.
3. Re-run the emotional prediction with this fuller picture in mind.

Evidence

Wilson et al. showed that asking people to account for other aspects of their future life (the "nothing else has changed" technique) reduced impact bias significantly in controlled studies. (observational)

Controlled experiments used short time horizons and hypothetical scenarios; real-world durability of the focalism-correction technique is less studied.

Sources

• Wilson et al. (2000), Focalism: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Common mistake

Adding only more good things to the future-life list when you’re imagining a bad event, which corrects focalism dishonestly — include realistic future frustrations and mundane stresses.