People who are in emotional states fail to appreciate what it will be like in an unemotional or cold state. Study after study has shown that we have trouble comprehending other people's hot states. Rachel wanted to figure out why people have this hot cold empathy gap.
When mild-mannered David Banner gets mad he transforms into the raging Incredible Hulk. Dr Laurie Santos loves this comic book tale - because it reflects real life. Intense things like anger, pain, even hunger, can cause us to act in extreme ways that we might not predict beforehand or forgive afterwards.
When we're in so-called "hot states" we might become a total stranger to ourselves. This can have a serious impact on our happiness, by stopping us properly planning for how we'll react to strong emotions and causing us to be unfairly harsh on our inner Hulks.
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