That one time when …: Reframing negative experiences with storytelling

Abstract

Many experiences in life are physically or emotionally negative in the moment, but worthwhile after the fact, yielding such instrumental benefits as self-improvement or lessons learned. One relatively unexplored benefit of negative experiences, however, is the ability to derive humor and other storytelling benefits from the experiences later on. We review literatures on emotional (re)appraisal, affective forecasting, storytelling, and humor to discuss how individuals can apply the skill of mining comedy out of tragedy to finding the stories in their own experiences. By leveraging a storytelling mindset, such individuals may find themselves even eagerly anticipating future negative experiences because of the meaningful personal and social benefits those experiences stand to yield them in both memories to come and stories to share.

Keywords: Affective forecasting; Focalism; Humor; Negative experiences; Reappraisal; Storytelling.