One of the ways to mitigate our anxiety (at least mine) can be to recognize our cognitive traps, and in this post, I will introduce impact bias.
You don't have to Google what impact bias means, because I did it for you.
"The impact bias, a form of which is the durability bias, in affective forecasting, is the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future feeling states."
To put it simply: if you think you're gonna be happy after getting that job, or if you're gonna get heartbroken after that breakup, you're right - but with less drama and less time than you think.
Ever since I found out about this bias, I hit this aha moment when the recent struggle I had were rooted in impact bias.
See, my last year in college was a complete downfall. Nearly, because I thankfully graduated. But before I realized I could actually make it out alive with a degree that's now on my bedroom floor, I had a hellish time. Guess what made it hellish? Yes that's right, depression & anxiety.
These two go hand in hand like, I don't know what.
The whole senior year, I had to ask for an extension for all the assignment deadlines. Then an extension for extension of deadlines. Then, I did not bother to ask and hoped to God I could finish my essays as soon as possible to submit with a heartful apology. Day after day, I could not start a single word. Or I did a few sentences, then call it a day. There were late nights when I turned off all the lights and sat in the corner of the room, sobbing (I'd rather sob than not), while facing out the windows to the urban view. Or that particular time when I had a panic attack, locked the door and mother had to break in to make sure her kid didn't do anything harmful to themselves. How weird. I "harm" myself everyday with my life choices.
But one of the choices were subconsciously made. It was impact bias. Whenever I thought about writing the essays, my mind immediately jumped to thinking how hard they were, how I needed to do tons of reading before actually writing it, how I keep delaying the work and causing worry for my mother and teachers, how I might not graduate, or should I even graduate,.. Good god.
Then I started one baby step, of just typing out what I think about the essay. Then off to planning, off to writing the intro and outro, etc. This process sounds easy on paper, but in fact took me a LONG time. But next thing I knew, I was compiling the reference list - final piece of the piece. These actions wouldn't have existed if it hadn't been for the support/advice of my friends and mother and teachers.
I submitted all of my essays, and obviously it didn't get high grades, partly because of the penalties, mainly because I didn't invest that much effort. Bottom line though, I graduated.
Personal lesson gained: Had I realized my tendency to overestimate the countless possibilities/outcome after my actions, I could have saved myself a lot of time, mental effort, and tears. However, going through this hard phase helped me "thấm" the intensity of impact bias on my life. How ironic.
I have no solution to this problem other than, to dodge the bias, just do your task.
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