Why thinking that “everything that can go wrong will go wrong” is adaptive.

  • 📰 PsychToday
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 65 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 29%
  • Publisher: 51%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

Assuming the worst-case scenario can be unpleasant and problematic. But when you see this kind of thinking from an evolutionary lens, it actually makes a lot of sense. Here's why.

Murphy's Law, or the idea that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, is a common social-perceptual bias.So picture this: We are done with dinner, and I offer to clean up. About half the chicken and split pea soup is left. In the spirit of getting the tough stuff out of the way, I figure I'll start by putting that in a Tupperware. I choose a round Tupperware that I think is plenty large enough for the amount of leftover soup.

The idea of assuming the worst as a general psychological strategy in life—in other words, adopting the idea of Murphy's Law—is actually, when we think about things from an evolutionary perspective, quite sensible. In other words, this particular social-perceptualLargely attributed to U.S. aerospace scientist Edward Murphy , Murphy's Law is a somewhat satirical and pessimistic sentiment at its core: Whatever.

Since the 1940s, this concept has been expanded well beyond the aerospace industry. Murphy's Law, essentially, applies to pretty much everything. Here are some examples of Murphy's Law in everyday life:If you think that you accidentally texted a questionable message to the incorrect person, you almost certainly did exactly that.If you forget your laptop computer on a cross-country flight, you are pretty much guaranteed to run out of battery and lose all your data just before you land.

As we are 200 miles on our road trip across the country, we might find ourselves afraid that we have left the stove on. After we have sent an email to our full organizational community, we re-read it three times to make sure that we have said nothing that could possibly be construed as offensive, and then we actually send the first draft of the email.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 714. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

GloRilla Talks JT Feud on 2024 CMT Music Awards Red Carpet: ‘Everything Is Everything’GloRilla says 'everything is everything' when asked about her back-and-forth spat with City Girls rapper JT on X over the weekend.
Source: billboard - 🏆 112. / 63 Read more »

31 Storage Products For Decluttering*Deep breaths* — a place for everything and everything in its place.
Source: BuzzFeed - 🏆 730. / 51 Read more »

Everything to Know About Disney's Disability Access Service Changes — and Why They're Dividing FansOn April 9, Disney announced changes to their policies for guests using DAS, which will take effect on May 20 at Walt Disney World and June 18 at Disneyland.
Source: people - 🏆 712. / 51 Read more »

Why You Should Forget Everything You Know About Problem SolvingMaster problem-solving with a fresh perspective by unleashing First Principle Thinking.
Source: hackernoon - 🏆 532. / 51 Read more »

Amanda Montell Has a Theory for Why Everything Feels So Hard Right NowRachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world.
Source: marieclaire - 🏆 102. / 63 Read more »

Why Costco’s hot dog is still $1.50 when everything has gotten so expensiveCostco’s hot dog deal, sold at its food courts, is still priced at $1.50 — exactly what it cost in 1985, before the Great Recession, the housing crisis, the pandemic and the latest bout of inflation.
Source: 10News - 🏆 732. / 50 Read more »