Wants Vs. Likes
Wants Vs. Likes Have you ever wanted something really, really bad, but when you finally got it, you were left feeling kind of disappointed? Maybe you thought changing jobs would make you happy, but it didn’t. Or you thought you’d like living in another state, but ended up regretting the move. Perhaps you sunk a bunch of money into a new hobby you were sure you’d love, only to abandon it after just a few outings. Why do we experience these mismatches between what we think something will be like and the reality of it? This misalignment is often the result of confusing our wants and our likes — a common mix-up that gets in the way of our making good decisions and finding real satisfaction. The Difference Between Wanting and Liking While we often use “like” and “want” interchangeably, in the realm of cognitive psychology, they’re two different things. Wanting is simply the prediction that we’ll like something when we get it or experience it. Lik...