Region-Beta Paradox

The region-beta paradox is the phenomenon in which people can sometimes recover more quickly from a more distressing experience than from a less distressing one. The hypothesized explanation is that sufficiently intense states trigger psychological defense processes that actively reduce the resulting distress, while milder states fail to trigger the same defenses and so receive less effective attenuation, even though people typically predict that the more intense state will last longer. The paradox has been observed in the psychological aftermath of exposure to terrorist attacks, likely related to the activation of coping mechanisms, cognitive dissonance and other forms of mental mobilization, and it has also been computationally modeled within affective computing.