Temporal Adjustments in the Evaluation of Events: The \"Rosy View\
Mitchell and colleagues followed people through three real events, a trip to Europe, a Thanksgiving holiday and a three-week cycling trip, measuring what they expected beforehand, how they felt during, and how they remembered it afterwards. The pattern was the same each time. Expectations were rosier than the experience, and recollections were rosier than the experience, with the event itself sitting in the trough between them. During the event people reported more negative thoughts than at either end, produced by ordinary distractions, small disappointments and a less flattering view of themselves. Those effects were short-lived: within days the evaluation had climbed back up. The authors call it the rosy view. This vault cites it for the gap between an experience and its two versions in memory, and for the practical implication that people plan and repeat activities on the basis of a record that was never accurate.
Mitchell and colleagues followed people through three real events, a trip to Europe, a Thanksgiving holiday and a three-week cycling trip, measuring what they expected beforehand, how they felt during, and how they remembered it afterwards. The pattern was the same each time. Expectations were rosier than the experience, and recollections were rosier than the experience, with the event itself sitting in the trough between them. During the event people reported more negative thoughts than at either end, produced by ordinary distractions, small disappointments and a less flattering view of themselves. Those effects were short-lived: within days the evaluation had climbed back up. The authors call it the rosy view. This vault cites it for the gap between an experience and its two versions in memory, and for the practical implication that people plan and repeat activities on the basis of a record that was never accurate.
Written from the abstract, Europe PMC.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Mitchell, T. R., Thompson, L., Peterson, E. & Cronk, R. (1997). "Temporal Adjustments in the Evaluation of Events: The 'Rosy View'." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Three events; anticipation and recollection both more positive than the experience. Sample sizes not verified here and no figure from them is carried.
Where we use it
- Your Nostalgia Is Lying to You, Why We Come Back
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.1997.1333
DOI: 10.1006/jesp.1997.1333