AUDIO: MOST PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE FUTURE
Most people don’t want to know their future. More than 2,000 people from Germany and Spain were asked in face-to-face interviews whether they would want to know about future events in their lives. Nearly all – 85 to 90 percent – would not want to know about upcoming negative events. Up to 70 percent preferred to remain ignorant of positive ones. The main reason people don’t want to know the future? We all like surprises – the same as not wanting to know how a movie ends, like in “Arrival” where it turns out Amy Adams’ daughter is her future baby. Oops – shouldn’t have said that.
Questions included:
– “Would you want to know today when your partner will die?” 89.5 percent said no.
– “Would you want to know today from what cause your partner will die?” 90.4 percent said no.
– “Would you want to know today whether your marriage will end in divorce or not?” 86.5 percent said no.
– “Would you want to know if there is life after death?” 56.9 percent said no.
– “Would you want to know the gender of your child before birth?” 40.3 percent said no.
The researchers also found that people who tended to avoid risk in life were the most likely to not want to know about the future.
* So I SHOULDN’T keep working on my time machine?
* 85 to 90% don’t want to know? Yikes! Bad news for the fortune-teller industry.
* Mostly I’d like to know how long the commercial break is going to be, so I know if I should go to the bathroom now or during the next one.
* I know something about the future. That “Timeless” show probably won’t get renewed.
* Unless they can go back in time and stop the ratings from falling.
* Okay, let’s say they did tell you about your future. There’s always the problem of believing them.
* That’s right, folks. I’m introducing the concept of the fake future.
* Not even CNN thought of that.
* Forget the future. I’m not too thrilled with what I know about right now.
* As long as we’re talking future here, could you slip me some lottery numbers?
CLIP: A couple of minutes of the theme from “Back to the Future”.
