“An end to the pandemic raises the value of staying safe, and it lowers the cost of staying safe. So you should be safer and take less risk. But people’s minds largely don’t work like that. I’m not sure exactly what they do think instead.”
One possible explanation would be that they don’t really think, but they fantasize. About a future where the current inconveniences are over.
I know the research is in a slightly different domain (goal directed behaviour) but this situation reminds me of Oettingen’s research about mental contrasting where solely fantasizing about a positive future can seduce a person to mentally enjoy this imagined future right now, decreasing the energy to go after a positive goal.
“An end to the pandemic raises the value of staying safe, and it lowers the cost of staying safe. So you should be safer and take less risk. But people’s minds largely don’t work like that. I’m not sure exactly what they do think instead.”
One possible explanation would be that they don’t really think, but they fantasize. About a future where the current inconveniences are over.
I know the research is in a slightly different domain (goal directed behaviour) but this situation reminds me of Oettingen’s research about mental contrasting where solely fantasizing about a positive future can seduce a person to mentally enjoy this imagined future right now, decreasing the energy to go after a positive goal.