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. 2010 Dec;21(12):1783-6.
doi: 10.1177/0956797610388816. Epub 2010 Nov 15.

Personality neglect. The unforeseen impact of personal dispositions on emotional life

Jordi Quoidbach  1 , Elizabeth W Dunn
Affiliations

Personality neglect. The unforeseen impact of personal dispositions on emotional life

Jordi Quoidbach et al. Psychol Sci. 2010 Dec.

Abstract

The present research provides the first evidence that people neglect their own personalities when they envision their future emotional lives. In Study 1, students ignored the impact of their dispositional happiness in predicting how they would feel 2 weeks after receiving grades. Yet dispositional happiness played an important role in shaping actual emotional experiences. Similarly, exhibiting personality neglect, participants in Study 2 overlooked their trait levels of neuroticism and optimism when forecasting their reaction to Barack Obama's election, though these personality dimensions were related to their actual emotional reactions. Because they overlooked the influence of their own dispositions, individuals incorrectly predicted their future feelings. Ironically, as a result of this personality neglect, more optimistic individuals were less likely to see their emotional future in an overly rosy light, whereas more neurotic individuals were more likely to overestimate the pleasure that the future would bring.

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