# 49. Manipulation of bias and heuristics in decision making ## 49.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 49.5.33. Impact bias This is the tendency to overestimate the intensity/length of impact of future feelings. This bias tends to make us expect that we will feel worse than we actually do when things go wrong. Fear is a powerful emotion and people's imagination often gets the better of them, leading to an exaggerated dread of the future. A manipulator may use this trait to maintain a victim in a state of fear of some particular consequences, by implying that things will be much worse than they actually are or will be, even when things go wrong.