Good News About Worrying
In May, Mathieu Putterman and Anna Evans Putterman graduated from law school at Chapman University. In July, the couple took the California bar examination. Results will be posted on Nov. 20, at 6 p.m. The Puttermans are in the final throes of that four-month wait.
Mr. Putterman, 29, is not breaking a sweat.
“I had good preparation, so I’m expecting to pass,” he said. “If I don’t, I’ll cross that bridge when it comes.”
His wife? Drenched.
“I would never say ‘I think I passed,’ ” whispered Mrs. Putterman, 25. “What if I say it out loud and they haven’t graded my essays yet? Will someone hear?”
Mrs. Putterman and fellow worry warriors, take heart.
A new study in the journal Emotion of how people manage stress while waiting for high-stakes results is a validation of sorts for those who embrace their anxiety. During the waiting period, researchers found, those who tried coping techniques failed miserably at suppressing distress. And when the news arrived, the worriers were more elated than their relaxed peers, if it was good; if bad, the worriers were better prepared.
“One definition of waiting well is not having negative emotions. But not going through that thinking process leaves you less prepared to receive the news. That’s the paradox, the counterintuitive part of the findings,” said Julie K. Norem, the author of “The Positive Power of Negative Thinking,” and a professor of psychology at Wellesley, who was not involved in the study.
Most researchers who study how people cope with uncertainty look at how they absorb difficult news — results of a biopsy, college or job application, bar exam — and then move forward.
But this study focused on an area that has received less scrutiny: the waiting period, during which a person is in limbo, powerless to affect a possibly life-altering outcome.
Kate Sweeny, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and her researchers surveyed 230 law school graduates frequently during the four months after the California bar exam in July 2013.
Could they wait in ways that mitigated anxiety? And would the way they managed their emotions during the waiting period have an effect on how they handled the pain or joy of the results?
People tried to make time fly and their worries disappear: yoga and exercise, work, binge-watching television, talking with friends, not talking with friends. Drinking.
Mr. Putterman reports that he keeps busy with work and caring for the couple’s Maltipoo puppy.
Mrs. Putterman: “It drives me crazy when people say ‘calm down.’ ”
Studies have shown that immersive activities, such as video games or even rainy-day household chores like closet decluttering, are more successful distractions than passive ones, like watching TV.
But in this study, almost no activity kept the waiters’ anxiety at bay over the long haul.
The strategies generally separated into three directions.
Some people sought to suppress fears. “But the more you try not to pay attention,” Dr. Sweeny said, “the more aware you become.”
Others sought silver linings. “They tried to anticipate something good in a bad outcome,” Dr. Sweeny said. “‘I will grow as a person if I fail the bar exam.’”
But, she contended: “That’s defensive posturing. Why would they take the bar exam if they believed that silver lining?”
Others aimed for a time-tested approach: hoping for the best, bracing for the worst. These people worried constructively, doing what researchers call “defensive pessimism,” or “proactive coping.” They dive into the worry maelstrom, surfacing with contingency plans.
“Set your expectations low and think through the negative possibilities,” Dr. Norem said. “It drives optimists crazy. But it shifts your attention away from feelings of anxiety to what you can do to address the disaster that might happen.”
When it came to how people handled the news, “The poor waiters did great,” Dr. Sweeny said. If the news was bad, the worriers were ready with productive, reasonable responses. “And if they passed, they were elated.”
But woe to those who had remained calm.
“Those who sailed through the waiting period were shattered and paralyzed by the bad news,” Dr. Sweeny said. “And if they got good news, they felt underwhelmed. You know, like, ‘Big whoops!’ ”
One takeaway, Dr. Norem said, is that “although anxiety is a negative emotion because it feels bad, it is not a negative emotion in that it’s bad to feel it. Why wouldn’t you feel anxious, waiting for results?”
The study also points to the importance of elation, the thrill of good news, made even more joyous when freed from soul-binding worry.
After the California bar exam in July 2014, Natalia Bialkowska, 25, a graduate of U.C.L.A.’s law school, worried mightily. That is because during the negligence tort essay, her worst nightmare became reality.
Ms. Bialkowska’s laptop, purchased in her native Poland, started behaving like a Polish-language keyboard. Z’s, N’s, O’s, A’s popped up with accents.
She panicked, deleting, copying, translating from Polish to English to California legal.
The four-month waiting period was excruciating. “I prayed to God to let the graders be able to read in Polish and English,” she said.
At 6 p.m., Nov. 21, 2014, Ms. Bialkowska punched in her registration number as a co-worker peered over her shoulder, clutching a bottle of sake.
Red. She failed.
You typed the wrong ID number, the co-worker shouted.
Green! Congratulations!
The co-worker screamed. Ms. Bialkowska sat silent, stunned.
“Be happy!” the co-worker commanded, proffering the bottle.
Ms. Bialkowska obeyed.
“I teared up and we laughed and celebrated. I texted everyone and called my mom in Poland,” she said. “There had been huge, heavy stress, and waiting forever. So the first feeling was relief.” And then, she added, “came the utmost happiness: I am ‘Esquire’!”
So good luck, Puttermans et al.
Don’t be happy. Worry.