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Overemphasising one aspect of an event when predicting future feelings. Single factors dominate our predictions.
Leads to poor life decisions, overinvestment in single solutions, and explains why achieving goals often feels less satisfying than expected.
People consistently overestimate how much any single change (winning lottery, losing weight, moving cities) will affect their long-term happiness.
"Evolution gave you pattern recognition. Marketing gave you patterns to recognize. Guess who's winning?"