Sam Johnson

It's all of the above, actually, David.

So the way that we think about dread is any kind of negative feelings that you have about things that haven't happened yet.

So we can separate out that definition, though, which is kind of the way that we think about this, from what we're actually doing when we measure it.

And when we're measuring this, what we're really doing is seeing, OK, for people who are going to expect to be financially worse off in the next year, to what extent does that affect their current well-being?

For people who think that they're going to be better off in the next year, to what extent does that affect their current well-being?

And it turns out that thinking that you're going to be financially worse off in the next year is a much bigger deal than thinking that you're going to be financially better off in the next year.

Well, we know that it can produce kind of negative emotional consequences in the present time.

So when we're dreading something that's going to happen in the future, we can start to ruminate about that thing, we can focus on that thing, and it can crowd out other thoughts that we might be having in the meantime.

But I think what the research is really showing is less about what are the kind of negative consequences

consequences in the moment, but more about the way that shapes the decisions that we make about the future.

Yeah, so two main things that we found.

So the first thing has to do with risk, and the second thing has to do with time.

so the thing to do with risk is that people vary in the extent to which dread is a more powerful emotion than savings savings kind of the opposite where you are looking forward to things that can happen uh to positive things that happen in the future for some people dread this is a much more powerful emotion than savoring and for those people they tend to avoid uh taking risks where the risk is something that they'd have to take

A decision that I have to make now about something that's going to happen in the future.

So the risk could be resolved in the future.

Yeah, so if you think about the type of person who is really focused on financial risks, those types of people might be very unlikely to start businesses, for example, because it's the type of thing where it's going to be potentially months or years before you find out what the outcome is going to be.

And when you're kind of ruminating or focusing on those sorts of negative emotions about the present, then it makes you think, okay, maybe this risk isn't something that I want to take.

Whereas people who have a more balanced attitude where they think, okay, there's some positive things that might happen from starting this business.

There's also some negative things.

Those people are more willing to take calculated risks.