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memory
You remember past events more fondly than you felt them at the time.
Rosy retrospection is the tendency to assign more positive attributes to past experiences as they fade from memory.
A 1997 study tracking students on a vacation found that their actual, in-the-moment ratings of the trip were lower than their recollection of the trip afterward. Your mind smooths over the boredom and stress, leaving behind a version of the event that feels warmer than it was. You are constantly editing your past to feel better.
The past is a fiction you write to feel satisfied with your life.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Mitchell, Thompson, Peterson, and Cronk, 1997, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
- What the check found
- The definition is accurate and the referenced 1997 study is the seminal paper identifying this bias. It is a well-established phenomenon in psychology, confirming the claim despite the absence of a supporting quote in the provided text.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.