Remember the Best, Downplay the Rest

May 18, 2006 -- People may put a positive spin on their memories as time goes by, a new study shows.

The study, published in the June edition of the Journal of Personality, focuses on people?s personal memories of events that meant a lot to them, such as falling in love, grieving a death, or reaching a personal goal.

In recalling those defining events, people tended to dwell on the positive aspects and downplay the downsides of those memories. In fact, people viewed those events more positively and less negatively in hindsight.

It?s as if they had smoothed out the rough edges of those memories over time, or seen silver linings where once they had only seen clouds.

The results may mean that ?people strive to maintain a positive and coherent sense of self in the face of a wide range of life adversity and opportunity,? write the researchers. They included Wendy-Jo Wood, who worked on the study for her psychology dissertation at Montreal?s Concordia University.

Probing Personal Memories

Participants were more than 270 students at Concordia University. They were in their mid-20s, on average.

First, the students were asked to report memories of events that had been deeply meaningful to them and were at least one year old.

The students rated how strongly the memories they chose had affected them in areas such as personal growth and learning about life, themselves, and others. Their ratings affirmed the importance of those events in the students? lives.

Next, 77 students dug a little deeper. They were asked to describe their memories of five personally significant events.

Again, those memories were at least a year old and had made a big impression on how the students thought of themselves.

?The only important aspect is that it leads to strong feelings and it is a memory that you have thought about many times,? the researchers write. ?It should be familiar to you like a picture you have studied or a song (happy or sad) you have learned by heart.?

Seeing the Best in the Past

Independent observers rated those events as being positive or negative. The students reported a wide range of events.

Negative events included breakups, death or illness of loved ones, muggings, car accidents, and moving away from close contacts. Positive events included falling in love, vacations, completing a degree, saving money for a purchase, or helping others.

The students didn?t just cruise down memory lane. They also recalled how they had felt when those events happened, and how they viewed those events now.

The students remembered feeling more negative when those events happened. In contrast, they reported feeling prouder and happier about those events in hindsight, the study shows.

It?s possible that the students misreported their feelings, but the researchers didn?t see a major problem with the data.

SOURCES: Wood, W. Journal of Personality, June 2006; vol 75: pp 811-846. News release, Blackwell Publishing.