A new study has found that people are far more emotionally affected by anticipating negative future events than by imagining positive ones. This pattern helps explain widespread discomfort with uncertainty and the tendency to want decisions settled as quickly as possible. Rather than being emotionally neutral, waiting for an outcome often generates a strong sense of dread. This emotional response means that anticipation itself becomes a powerful driver of behaviour, sometimes outweighing rational evaluations of potential benefits.

Research conducted by academics at the Universities of Bath and Waterloo in Canada shows that the emotional impact of imagining future losses is dramatically more substantial than the pleasure associated with anticipating equivalent gains. The study found that feelings of dread linked to possible losses are more than six times as intense as the enjoyment people experience when thinking about potential rewards of the same size. This stark imbalance highlights how human emotions are tilted towards the negative when considering what lies ahead.

Using large-scale UK household survey data, the researchers demonstrated that this emotional asymmetry plays a key role in shaping economic behaviour. Individuals who experience stronger negative than positive anticipatory emotions are significantly more likely to avoid risk and are less willing to wait for delayed outcomes. This remains true even when patience could lead to objectively better results. As a consequence, people may turn away from opportunities that involve uncertainty or time delays, not because those options are inferior, but because the emotional cost of waiting feels too high.

Professor Chris Dawson from the University of Bath’s School of Management explains that, for many people, the fear of what might go wrong outweighs the pleasure of imagining what might go right. Anticipating a modest loss, such as £10, can be far more emotionally painful than the satisfaction of looking forward to gaining the same amount. This imbalance influences both how much risk people are prepared to tolerate and how long they are willing to wait, shaping decisions across everyday life, including finances, careers, health choices, and general wellbeing.

Published in Cognitive Science, the study analyses data from almost 14,000 individuals collected between 1991 and 2024. This long time frame allowed researchers to examine how people’s emotional responses to expectations about their future finances affect decisions involving uncertainty and delay. Most real-world choices combine these elements. Investing money, changing jobs, or undergoing medical tests all involve uncertain outcomes that take time to resolve, making anticipatory emotions particularly influential.

The findings also confirm that losses continue to loom larger than gains once outcomes are actually experienced. The emotional impact of realised losses was found to be roughly twice as strong as that of equivalent gains, in line with established theories of loss aversion. However, the research goes further by offering a new perspective linking attitudes to risk and time. It helps explain why more risk-averse people also tend to be more impatient, suggesting both traits arise from a shared desire to reduce the emotional burden of waiting.

Co-author Dr Sam Johnson from the University of Waterloo notes that people often try to avoid choices with possible adverse outcomes and prefer those outcomes to be resolved sooner in order to minimise anticipatory dread. The study also highlights substantial individual differences. Some people experience anticipatory emotions far more vividly than others, helping to explain wide variations in risk-taking and patience across the population. Importantly, these effects remain significant even after accounting for personality, mental health, income, and education, underscoring the decisive role of emotional anticipation in everyday decision-making.

More information: Chris Dawson et al, Asymmetric Anticipatory Emotions and Economic Preferences: Dread, Savoring, Risk, and Time, Cognitive Science. DOI: 10.1111/cogs.70160

Journal information: Cognitive Science Provided by University of Bath