Preparing Silver Linings for a Cloudy Day: The Consequences of Preemptive Benefit Finding

Abstract

Waiting for important news is stressful. In four studies, we assess the utility of preemptive benefit finding, a coping strategy in which people seek silver linings in bad news before receiving news, for emotional well-being across several waiting periods (waiting for bar exam results, the outcome of political elections, and results of a fictitious health risk assessment). Our findings support the effectiveness of preemptive benefit finding while waiting, such that identifying benefits in bad news while waiting predicts more positive emotions during the wait (Studies 3 and 4) and buffers people against the emotional consequences of bad news by boosting post-news positive emotions (Studies 2–4). Importantly, engaging in preemptive benefit finding does not backfire if a person ultimately receives good news (Studies 1, 3, and 4). We discuss results from a mini meta-analysis and consider implications of our findings for interventions to improve well-being while waiting and after news arrives.

Psychological Resilience: An Affect-Regulation Framework

“…From this perspective, reappraisal should allow people to successfully change or even completely transform their affective experiences. These hypotheses about reappraisal's effects on affective experience have received substantial empirical support from both experimental and correlational studies, and meta-analyses on this topic confirm that the use of reappraisal is associated with decreased experience of negative affect and increased experience of positive affect (Augustine & Hemenover 2009, Doré et al 2016, Rankin & Sweeny 2022, Wang et al 2021, Webb et al 2012.…”

“…Second, as indicated in Figure 2, drawing on both approaches, we characterize affectregulation strategies in terms of their short-term consequences for multiple domains that, accumulating over time, have critical implications for resilience. These include the domains of affective experience (including both negative and positive affective experiences; Moskowitz et al 1996, Rankin & Sweeny 2022, Wang et al 2021, affective behavior (Bonanno et al 2004, Gross 1998), autonomic physiology (McRae et al 2010, Mendes et al 2003, social processes (including social responsiveness, closeness, connection, liking, social support, and satisfaction with interactions; Butler et al 2003, Lazarus & Folkman 1984, Marroquin et al 2017, cognitive effort (the amount of effort needed to implement an affect-regulation strategy; Troy et al 2018), and engagement (awareness of, behavioral engagement with, and learning from adversity; Nes et al 2005). To explain resilience, we must consider more than a single type of short-term consequence.…”

“…The most commonly studied cognitive-change strategy is reappraisal (also referred to as cognitive reappraisal, positive reappraisal, or benefit finding), which involves reframing or reconstruing an emotional situation in order to change one's affect (Doré et al 2016, Folkman & Moskowitz 2000, Gross 2015, Rankin & Sweeny 2022). Take, for example, one's partner asking for a divorce, which an individual might initially appraise as an overpowering event that will devastate their own and www.annualreviews.org Short-term consequences of cognitive change.…”