← all facts
memory
You remember the vacation better than the experience.
People report higher satisfaction for past events than they did while the events were actually occurring.
This rosy retrospection occurs because the brain filters out the mundane irritations and focused frustrations of the moment. You recall the high points and the general feeling, effectively erasing the reality of the daily struggle.
Your memories are more curated than your lived life.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Mitchell, Thompson, Peterson, and Cronk, 1997
- What the check found
- The cited 1997 study by Mitchell et al. empirically established that retrospective evaluations of an event are often more positive than the evaluations made while the event was actually happening.
- 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.