knowing what the future holds

the other day a friend posed the question: if you could test for an illness you knew would kill you later in life, would you choose to take the test or live in ignorance? the response was overwhelmingly for the latter option. i held the dissenting opinion. i’d rather know so i could live my life to the fullest. a recent study may back up my decision.

through genetic testing women can discover a genetic mutation that can lead to certain types of cancer including breast and ovarian. researchers at georgetown wondered how this test impacted happiness, so they followed a group of women for six months after they were tested for the mutation. the results showed that those who tested negatively were, as one would predict, happier afterwards. the surprising result is that those who tested positive for the mutation were not affected either way – they felt the same as before the test was administered.
an interesting result is that those who test negative can have significant guilt that they escaped somehow but their relatives did not, a phenomenon we also see when people survive traumatic incidents.

from psychology today

Labels: decision making, well being