Evaluating multiepisode events: Boundary conditions for the peak-end rule
Miron-Shatz tested how people evaluate a whole day, using large samples in the United States, France and Denmark who reconstructed the previous day episode by episode and reported how they felt during each. The normative answer, the average of those feelings weighted by how long each lasted, turned out to be the best predictor of how the day was rated overall, which is the opposite of what the peak-end rule predicts. Ends were ignored. What did contribute, beyond the average, was whether the person reported having had an awful moment, and less often whether they reported a wonderful one, and these mattered more for comparing days against each other than for judging a day on its own. The authors propose boundary conditions: the peak-end rule may apply to episodes that form a single coherent experience, and a day, being a bundle of unrelated events, may not be one. A useful limit on a much-quoted rule.
Miron-Shatz tested how people evaluate a whole day, using large samples in the United States, France and Denmark who reconstructed the previous day episode by episode and reported how they felt during each. The normative answer, the average of those feelings weighted by how long each lasted, turned out to be the best predictor of how the day was rated overall, which is the opposite of what the peak-end rule predicts. Ends were ignored. What did contribute, beyond the average, was whether the person reported having had an awful moment, and less often whether they reported a wonderful one, and these mattered more for comparing days against each other than for judging a day on its own. The authors propose boundary conditions: the peak-end rule may apply to episodes that form a single coherent experience, and a day, being a bundle of unrelated events, may not be one. A useful limit on a much-quoted rule.
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Miron-Shatz, T. (2009). "Evaluating multiepisode events: boundary conditions for the peak-end rule." Emotion, 9(2), 206-213. PubMed 19348533. Large samples from the United States, France and Denmark. The duration-weighted average was the best predictor of retrospective evaluation.
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https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015295
DOI: 10.1037/a0015295