Worst case
Write a dreaded outcome out concretely, so it stops weighing more than it would.
Variants
- default
Data fields
The fields a spec's page can set for this component (see switchback show worst-case --json):
fear
Grounding
Helps: when a dread belongs to no plan: people overestimate how long a bad outcome will hurt, and in forecasting studies thinking about everything else that will fill the following days reduced that overestimate; the before and after ratings show whether the page did the same for you
Backfires: when the next-day, week and month block only rehearses the catastrophe, without the other things that will fill those days, which may feed worry (untested), or when defusing the dread makes a real risk feel acceptable
- CWriting out a dreaded outcome concretely, including what would happen next and how one would cope, lowers its felt severity. People overestimate how bad and how long-lasting their reaction to negative events will be.Gilbert, Pinel, Wilson, Blumberg & Wheatley (1998), Wilson, Wheatley, Meyers, Gilbert & Axsom (2000), Norem & Cantor (1986)
- CPeople recall their earlier attitudes, feelings or confidence as closer to their present state than they were, or as fitting their theory of how they must have changed. A written baseline is therefore needed to see real change.Wolfe & Williams (2018), Ross (1989)