Anticipation is the pleasurable, hopeful or sometimes slightly fearful excitement that we feel when looking forward to a particular event or happening. It can be passive, in that it is just a feeling, or it can drive us to take action to manage the risks and contingencies associated with the event.

Adjectives that may be linked to anticipation in literature include uneasy, happy, and proud, suggesting that it is not entirely positive—but also not always negative. It is therefore a fairly complex emotion. It is also common to everyone. Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (see our page on Understanding Emotions) defines it as one of the eight primary emotions, opposite surprise, and adjacent to happiness and anger. This page explains more about this emotion, and how to harness and manage it.

Defining Anticipation

Anticipation is the state of waiting for something that you know is going to happen in the near future (see box).

It is generally a state of pleasurable excitement. However, it can also be tinged with negative emotions such as fear or nervousness, especially if you are not sure exactly what might happen.

It is similar to expectation, in that it looks towards the future. However, anticipation goes beyond expectation, into action. In particular, it describes the actions taken to prepare for the event that you anticipate happening. The root of the word is a Latin word meaning “to take care of ahead of time”. For example:

• When you look at a weather forecast, you may change your planned behaviour to take the likely weather into account by taking an umbrella or deciding not to picnic;

• When you are expecting a baby, you buy baby clothes and products like a cot and a car seat to ensure that you can look after your baby once it is born;

• When you are looking forward to going on holiday, you may buy new clothes to wear while you are there; and

• When you have guests coming to stay, you are likely to make up beds ahead of time, and may cook a meal in advance.

This is anticipation in action.

Anticipation is therefore essential for good risk management (and our page on Risk Management explains more).

The Anticipation Effect

Anticipation is so important to us as humans that it can actually affect our behaviour.

This does not just mean things like taking an umbrella with us. Instead, there is considerable evidence that we actually make decisions taking into account the pleasure that we expect to feel at the time, even though we know we may later feel some consequences. For example:

• You might decide to take an expensive holiday even though you can’t really afford it, because you anticipate getting a lot of pleasure out of the holiday; or

• You may choose to go out with friends rather than studying, because you know that an evening out will be much more pleasurable—even though you know getting good grades is essential for your future career.

There is even evidence that we evaluate experiences differently depending on how much pleasure we expected to feel, rather than how much we actually experienced. If you had high expectations of an event, you are more likely to over-estimate how much you enjoyed it. If you did not expect to enjoy something, it is hard to appreciate the positive aspects of it. You are likely to conclude that “It was OK”, rather than being more positive.

This effect is rooted in the science around anticipation.

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The Science of Anticipation

Anticipation is not just an emotion. It is also closely linked to the brain’s reward systems, and particularly the release of dopamine.

Anticipation of a reward (or something pleasant) can cause the release of dopamine—even before that reward is obtained. In other words, the anticipation of something pleasant is pleasant and rewarding in itself.

This may explain why we often feel the need to work towards goals. We need something to anticipate: to work towards and to see ourselves achieving. With a goal, we can enjoy the potential achievement many times over. Indeed, actually achieving the goal may come with a tinge of disappointment, because now we have nothing to look towards—and will need a new target to anticipate.

Anticipation can therefore be extremely positive. However, it can also be associated with anxiety and stress because of the uncertainty.

It is therefore important to have strategies to manage those aspects of anticipation, especially before important life events. For example:

• Planning a wedding or expecting a baby can both be quite stressful times. You may want to use stress reduction strategies such as being able to recognise your personal stress triggers, and move away from them. It is also important at times like that to look after yourself physically, and ensure that you are eating well, getting some exercise, and getting enough sleep.

There is more about this in our pages on Stress and Stress Management, and particularly in our page of top tips for Dealing with Stress.

• One of the most stressful aspects of anticipation is the uncertainty. It may be helpful to consciously focus on the things that you can control, and remind yourself that it does not help to worry about things that are outside your control.

There is more about this approach in our page on Personal Change Management.

It seems likely that one of the reasons why we can find anticipation potentially stressful is the same as why it is pleasurable. That is, we experience the same physical responses to the anticipation as to the event itself. If we are worried about what might happen, we experience the stress response, just like the dopamine release for pleasurable anticipation.

The purpose of anticipation is therefore to help us to deal with the stress of future events by thinking about what might happen, and mitigating it ahead of time.

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A Final Thought

A bit like surprise, some people deal much better with anticipation than others.

For some people, anticipation—even nervous anticipation—is generally pleasurable. For others, the nervousness outweighs the pleasure. It is therefore important to figure out which group you fit into, and manage your anticipation accordingly.

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