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memory
You remember experiences based only on the ending, not duration.
In a 1993 study, participants rated an uncomfortable experience more favorably if the end was less painful, regardless of total time.
Subjects kept their hands in freezing water for 60 seconds. A second trial lasted 90 seconds, with the final 30 seconds being slightly warmer. Participants preferred to repeat the longer trial because the ending felt less severe.
The final moments of your day or project dictate your memory of the whole.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Daniel Kahneman, 1993, Peak-End Rule
- What the check found
- The 1993 study by Kahneman, Fredrickson, et al. confirms the findings. The provided quote establishes the Peak-End rule, though the referenced experiment in the text is the colonoscopy study, not the cold-pressor task.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.