The Empathy Gap

The empathy gap is a psychological phenomenon where people have difficulty understanding or predicting how they will think, feel, or behave in different emotional states—especially when their current feelings differ from those they will experience later. For example, someone might underestimate how much they’ll crave comfort food when stressed or overestimate their ability to resist temptation when most calm. This gap can lead to poor decision-making because our current emotions influence our judgments about future feelings and actions, often causing us to underestimate or overlook our future needs or reactions.