Also known as Premeditatio Malorum. A practice from Stoicism, where you plan for the worst case, knowing that it's usually better to have a good thing happen when you are prepared, even though some extra effort may be wasted, than to go into a bad situation completely unforeseen.
It's about knowing one thing about the nature of human beings, that people may not be good. Of course, not all evil is man-made by others. If the people happen to be nice from your subjective judgement, you would actually turn out satisfied because you got something that wasn't in your expectations. If they happen to be evil, it is a successful prediction you can record and observe. You don’t actually have to retaliate against them, just continue to be a stoic and exert effort to neutralise the impact or emotions.
Yes, for sure, due to Darwinism (though it may cause more stress than benefit on rare occasions)! For instance, the brain, for humans, is wired, of course, from evolution, and it thus fears the worst when it is hunting or in a dark cave. Because it evolved to survive, not being in an education system, it may stress out much more than it needs to, and the brain rememers negative feedback more, so it will thus learn, perhaps, to prepare for the worst case! The counter is to simply practice or accept this!
To avoid you having unrealistic overconfidence in the world, because while others say to "It's not that deep", it is much more important to notice and make plans on how to deal with threats and assess the risks than to envision a perfect world where nothing needs to be done due to there being almost no problems. It also helps with planning your daily life because being prepared can give you a sense of readiness, reducing stress which can also paradoxically increase esteem.
For instance, for examinations, you should be mentally ready in case a horribly hard question appears such that you don't get shocked, to the best of your ability.
If you pre-think about the worst outcomes, you can make more backup plans (unlike the unrealistic optimist)
Well, just like everything, it's not for everybody and should be used in moderation. It's easy to use this too much, thus diluting it and having it lose its meaning because it's no longer significant compared to other things! It can also create a sense of pessimism, which can hinder motivation and action, thus backfiring. I heard that humans function better under optimism because it helps them try new things, instead of catastrophizing that new things likely wouldn't work.
For instance, with this mindset, I used to be so scared of job applications for my Work Experience Program because I fell into a fallacy where I thought it was not worth it due to the sheer amount of luck needed for someone to choose me over the gigantic number of "everyone else's". However, I was quickly corrected when I heard that not getting a job is an even worse-case scenario and just because I fail an application doesn't actually mean anything that bad in the grand scheme of things, as there are no punishments, and if I assumed the worst-case would always happen, being blind to the other situations, I may never get a job in the first place... Being prepared for the worst-case doesn't mean being prepared only for the worst-case.
Low expectations also can be a sign of pessimism/depression. Though I don't think self-diagnosing whether you have such signs helps at all since it's too subjective and it is not cool to self-stigmatize. Tricky.
I dont think premeditation of evil has much to do with gracefulness though. For one may imagine the worst forever. Gracefulness might momentary stop your defenses.
When it causes avoidance to something - because sometimes thinking about the bad still can't make your mind feel better. You may have the paradox that you think pessimistic is bad But being prepared for the worst SHOULD reduce anxiety!
The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. However, I will be prepared if such things happen.