Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
Cogn Emot. 2024 Nov;38(7):1048-1063. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2346757. Epub 2024 May 7.
When recalling autobiographical events, people not only retrieve event details but also the feelings they experienced. The current study examined whether people are able to consistently recall the intensity of past feelings associated with two consequential and negatively valenced events, i.e. the 9/11 attack ( = 769) and the COVID-19 pandemic ( = 726). By comparing experienced and recalled intensities of negative feelings, we discovered that people systematically recall a higher intensity of negative feelings than initially reported - overestimating the intensity of past negative emotional experiences. The COVID-19 dataset also revealed that individuals who experienced greater improvement in emotional well-being displayed smaller biases in recalling their feelings. Across both datasets, the intensity of remembered feelings was correlated with initial feelings and current feelings, but the impact of the current feelings was stronger in the COVID-19 dataset than in the 9/11 dataset. Our results demonstrate that when recalling negative autobiographical events, people tend to overestimate the intensity of prior negative emotional experiences with their degree of bias influenced by current feelings and well-being.
当人们回忆自传体事件时，不仅会回忆起事件的细节，还会回忆起当时的感受。本研究考察了人们是否能够始终如一地回忆起与两个重要的负面事件（即 9/11 袭击事件和 COVID-19 大流行）相关的过去感受的强度。通过比较经历过的和回忆起的负面感受的强度，我们发现人们会系统地回忆起比最初报告的更高强度的负面感受——高估了过去负面情绪体验的强度。COVID-19 数据集还表明，情绪幸福感有较大改善的个体在回忆自己的感受时表现出的偏差较小。在两个数据集上，记忆中感受的强度与初始感受和当前感受相关，但在 COVID-19 数据集中，当前感受的影响比在 9/11 数据集中更强。我们的研究结果表明，当人们回忆起负面的自传体事件时，他们往往会高估先前负面情绪体验的强度，而其偏差程度受到当前感受和幸福感的影响。
