Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences
The good ‘ole days, eh! There is some evidence to suggest that we always view the past though rose-tinted glasses – feeling that the past was somehow better than the present. However, research just out has shown that that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Research by Alberto Prati, Claudia Senik for the Association of Psychological Science has shown that current feelings impact our view of the past. To do this they have assessed data from different longitudinal studies into how happy people feel over time. These include a German study over 10 years of 11’000+ participants, a British study over 12 years of 20’000+ participants, a French study of over 18’000 participants, and about 4’000 results from the USA over a period of 35 years.
What did they find?
What they found is that there seem to be some mix up between current ratings and change in happiness over time. This in contrast to the past is better hypotheses. This showed that those who felt happy now rate their past happiness as lower than it actually was. It seems that feeling happy now suggests an improvement or a contrast to the past and so the past must have been less good.
In contrast the opposite happened with those with current lower happiness – they rated their past happiness as higher than it actually was.
This shows that our past memories are influenced by our current states. Prati and Senik plan to further research how memories impact current life decisions – that will be interesting to see. I also wonder how this influences political climate!
Andy Habermacher
Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.
Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).
References
Alberto Prati, Claudia Senik.
Feeling Good Is Feeling Better.
Psychological Science, 2022; 33 (11): 1828
DOI: 10.1177/09567976221096158
More Quick Hits
Brain Cells Adapt to Help You Stay Awake
Falling asleep is a funny thing – you don’t need to think about it when it happens but can cause many people who can’t incredibly frustration…
Dad Brain is Real
We know that mothers go through multiple physical and psychological changes after birth (and before) including change in brain structures but what about fresh fathers?
Mask-Wearing Makes You Better Behaved
This is a fascinating study that shows that wearing masks changes behaviour in subtle but important ways…
Coffee Can Help You Live Longer
Yes, that is good news for you (us) coffee drinkers. This supports plenty of more recent studies which have shown the health benefits of coffee…
Big Kids Die Earlier!
Before you panic – the conclusion in the title is based on research into mice not human beings – but there could potentially be some important insights for us human beings as well.
Petting (Real) Dogs Activates the Social Brain
There have been lots of studies into the positive impacts of having pets around us – but this study just published looked at brain activation patterns while being with a dog, petting a dog, and…