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memory
Your brain ignores most of an experience to save energy.
In a 1996 study, participants judged the total unpleasantness of a colonoscopy based heavily on the peak discomfort and the final moments of the procedure.
The study was published in 1996 in the journal Pain, rather than 1993.
You evaluate your life not by its total content, but by its highlights and its conclusion.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Redelmeier and Kahneman, 1993, Pain
- What the check found
- The core finding is accurate, but the date is incorrect (1996 vs 1993). Additionally, the peak-end rule is a heuristic model rather than a claim that participants use 'only' those two data points.
- 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.