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memory
Your memory of an experience ignores the average duration.
The peak-end rule states that your evaluation of an experience is determined primarily by its most intense moment and its end.
In a 1993 study, participants who underwent a longer, less painful procedure rated it as less unpleasant than those who had a shorter, slightly less intense procedure that ended on a peak of discomfort. The duration was effectively ignored in their final judgment.
You remember how it ended, not how long it took.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Kahneman, 1993
- What the check found
- The definition is accurate, and the 1993 paper by Kahneman et al. established the foundation for the peak-end rule, distinguishing it from total duration or cumulative pain.
- 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.