The so-called Zeigarnik effect refers to the tendency for people . to feel relatively less stress or suffering when they think that they have the option of escaping from a situation (compared to when they think they do not have the option of escaping) to give greater weight to potential losses than to potential gains when making decisions to make overly optimistic plans, failing to make allowances for unexpected events or problems to experience automatic, intrusive thoughts about a goal when pursuit of that goal has been interrupted