“Life will not return to normal” … a “difficult” fact that...

Most of us are nostalgic for last January, when daily life was closer to what we were used to in the past, that is, the pre-Corona era.

At the moment, we are still discovering whether this year’s changes will become permanent, for example, whether work will remain from home, whether wearing a mask outside becomes part of our nature, and whether handshakes and hugs have become a thing of the past.

Psychologists say that severing ties permanently with January as it was in the past is not necessarily a bad thing, while the danger comes from longing for a normal life again, rather than continuing to work on adapting to whatever is coming.

Thomas Davenport, Distinguished Chair Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, said politicians pretending that “normal” is around the corner are deluding themselves or their followers, or maybe both. ”

Davenport explained, via e-mail, that people who suffer tragedies eventually return to their previous level of happiness, but he believes that the situation of “Covid-19″ is slightly different, as the person expects it to end soon, so there is no need to change their attitudes permanently about this. Subject”.

The human tendency to believe that change is temporary and that the future will resemble the past again is called the “normality bias”.

People who refuse to cope with change believe that the “normal” they remember will return, and delay adjusting their daily routine or outlook.

Davenport believes that those who refuse to wear masks are “guilty” of a bias towards normality, because they see this interference with life as fleeting and do not need to adopt it.

The phenomenon of “adaptation to pleasure” indicates that we tend to gradually return to a constant level of happiness scores over time after accidents, whether they are positive or negative incidents in our life.

Although it seems at first glance that what happened may change those scores by a wide margin, with time we return to the constant level of happiness.

“When both good and bad events happen, you first feel strong emotions, then adjust and return to your normalcy,” explains professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, Sonia Lyubomirsky.

Lyubomirsky points out that adaptation is much stronger with positive events, as people do not adapt completely to the negative change in their lives.

Behaviors that change everyday life may be quickly abandoned when they are no longer relevant.

For example, adaptation to wearing a mask, to prevent “Covid-19” infection, as the new normal, then remove the mask and return to the old normal.

Lyubomirsky explains that the behaviors that remain stuck with us are those that are linked to our daily routine, and that occur automatically.

And if this is a real habit, it can actually keep it steady, for example we wash our hands frequently without even thinking. And it is a habit that can definitely stay with us.

In Lyubomirsky, life is essentially a series of changes and adaptations, something that humans do well.