George Bailey Effect
Categories: Financial Theory
A pre-suicidal delusion that leads people to believe they can talk to angels and are married to Donna Reed.
Of course, we’re talking about the main character from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. In case you live a bah-humbug existence, that’s the black-and-white heartwarmer where Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey is about to jump in the river, when a kindly angel-in-training shows him what life would have been like if he had never been born.
Spoilers: life stinks without George. Everyone is worse off. The town is controlled by a mean, old banker. The pharmacist has become a convicted killer. George's brother is dead. And no one is married to Donna Reed.
George learns to count his blessings, wakes from his fever dream, and embraces life (“Merry Christmas, you old building and loan”).
The George Bailey effect is a psychological condition that comes from imagining a world where our lives are worse. Studies suggest people think better of their current circumstances if they imagine what bad things could have happened to them.