The Nature and Consequences of Affective Forecasting Accuracy

Affective forecasting-how people think they will feel in the future-is thought to influence well-being. But there is scarce evidence for this link. We used experience-sampling to examine (1) how accurately people forecast day-to-day affect, and (2) whether people had higher coping and life satisfaction on days they accurately forecasted. People were quite accurate, but forecasting accuracy did not predict coping or life satisfaction. This null result challenges the theorized link between affective forecasting and wellbeing.