region-beta paradox
region-beta paradox proper noun: the phenomenon that people can sometimes recover more quickly from more intense emotions or pain than from less distressing experiences, tentatively attributed to the fact that only the more intense states trigger psychological defense processes.
Proper noun
the region-beta paradox
- The phenomenon that people can sometimes recover more quickly from more intense emotions or pain than from less distressing experiences, tentatively attributed to the fact that only the more intense states trigger psychological defense processes.
Origin of region-beta paradox
Named in reference to an illustration in the paper by Daniel Gilbert et al. that introduced the paradox. They consider a commuter who has the habit of walking to destinations within a mile of her origin, and cycling to more distant destinations. Since the bicycle is faster, the commuter will reach some distant locations more quickly than nearer destinations (region beta in their diagram), reversing the normal tendency to arrive later at more distant locations.
Questions about region-beta paradox
- What does region-beta paradox mean?
- Region-beta paradox means the phenomenon that people can sometimes recover more quickly from more intense emotions or pain than from less distressing experiences, tentatively attributed to the fact that only the more intense states trigger psychological defense processes.
- What part of speech is region-beta paradox?
- Region-beta paradox is a proper noun.
Words near region-beta paradox in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: region-beta paradox (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “region-beta paradox.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/region-beta_paradox. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
