Blind spots in the search for happiness: Implicit attitudes and nonverbal leakage predict affective forecasting errors

Realistic affective forecasting: The role of personality

“…These findings lead us to speculate that two other personality processes, one related to prospection (projecting into the future) and one related to experiential awareness, are comparable in magnitude and may act in concert to facilitate realistic affective forecasts, in terms of the relative ordering of positive to negative reactions across individuals. This speculation is consistent with theories emphasizing that these two processes fundamentally differ (Dunn et al, 2009; McConnell et al, 2011; Robinson & Clore, 2002). In summary, our findings suggest that personality generally contributes to realistic affective forecasting in terms of who predicts and experiences more positive or negative emotional reactions, and our analyses lead us to hypothesize three personality processes underlying congruence: dispositional emotionality, prospection, and experiential awareness.…”

“…As well, personality could simultaneously explain variance in predicted and actual reactions through two other distinct channels, one involving ‘prospection,’ the capacity to imagine one’s future (see Figure 1C), and another involving ‘experiential awareness’ related to contemplating one’s subjective experience (see Figure 1D). For example, some theorizing has emphasized the ways in which these two processes fundamentally differ (e.g., Dunn, Forrin, & Ashton-James, 2009; McConnell et al, 2011; Robinson & Clore, 2002), suggesting that different elements of personality might be involved in prospection versus emotional awareness.…”

The Why and How of Defending Belief in a Just World

“…Though explicit and implicit BJW are likely correlated (see Hofmann, Gawronski, Gschwendner, Le, & Schmitt, 2005), implicit BJW might better predict BJW-defense. This hypothesis is consistent with the finding that implicit constructs better predict people's spontaneous emotional experiences, as well as their reactions to threatening stimuli, compared to explicit constructs (e.g., McConnell, Dunn, Austin, & Rawn, 2011;Phelps et al, 2000;Rudman & Goodwin, 2004). Researchers could attempt to develop measures of implicit BJW and test whether people who have a strong implicit BJW are more likely to engage in BJW-defense.…”

The Self as a Collection of Multiple Self-Aspects: Structure, Development, Operation, and Implications

“…In particular, we would expect that associative knowledge relating to one's emotions, habits, fears, intuitions, and culturallytransmitted beliefs are probably activated in a relevant context even though a person may not have any explicit ability to report on their associations with that context. Indeed, there is both theory (e.g., Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006) and empirical findings (e.g., McConnell, Dunn, Austin, & Rawn, 2011) indicating that one's in-the-moment affective experiences are shaped both by explicitly-available knowledge and also by associative knowledge that cannot be reported in a deliberative, verbal manner.…”