“they started something called ‘Dear Tomorrow,’ which invites people to write such letters to the future. And what that practice does is allow people to think about and describe how their decisions today are affecting that future. ”
"taking on the perspective of someone in the future is very different ... It actually creates what I think of as imaginative empathy—a response in which you feel something towards the future that is more than just a cognitive response.”
"When a predicted disaster turns out to be a near miss or less catastrophic than expected, it reinforces our sense that nothing bad will happen to us, even if the past is a poor precedent. We come to view forecasters as boys crying wolf. "
"Threats that people take most seriously turn out to be those we can most vividly imagine. At airports in the 1950s and 1960s, insurance underwriters sold accidental death policies to people just before they boarded planes. "
"When a speculative scenario of the future has more colorful details, it seems more likely to us, whether or not it actually is. When sensory details do not surface, on the other hand, it can make a future scenario seem unlikely or even impossible. "
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