Do you remember bad times or good times better?

Left Brain

I read this piece of research and was intrigued. According to this study, people remember bad times better than they remember good times. They say it's somehow an evolutionary advantage to remember emotionally bad things better than positive things.

This phenomena would mean you'll remember your bad cosmetic experiences better than your good ones.

I don't know. I think I remember good times better than bad. But maybe I'm just a wide eyed optimist. How about the rest of you?

crazywithkids

man these are good questions...I totally remeber the bad times more. My Hubby constantly is telling me this. Good to know I'm normal in this regard!

Sarah Bellum

I'm not sure which camp this puts me in, but I tend to remember the bittersweet moments the best.

Karen

Left Brain - I think it might be influenced by your personality and your innate emotional IQ. Here's why: I read this really interesting article about one of the largest long term studies sociologists had ever done. It followed a sizable group of people (it was in the hundreds) who had survived traumatic experiences at an early age, such as sexual abuse or parental abandonment. It followed them over four decades. They wanted to find out why some people seemed scarred for life while others moved on, even enjoying far-reaching success. It all came down to personality. The people who continued to suffer emotional trauma kept talking about the past every chance they could and explaining to others how the trauma continued to affect numerous aspects of their lives and their behavior while the people who seemed to have moved on would have to be directly engaged to talk about the past. When they were, they all had similar responses such as, "Well, it really wasn't that bad and it was a long time ago."

So it's good to be "a wide-eyed optimist"!

cate

Oh I definitely remember the bad times...which totally sucks because I have had some amazing good times.

My husband and I have a great friend Mike from college. Mike's older brother was the same age as me and we had gone to Elementary School together. He was one of the nicest people to me for the 2 years that I was in the same school. I went off to public school...he stayed private. We never really talked after that it was 6th grade. Enter the early 2000s my then boyfriend introduces me to his friend Mike....turns out his brother was visiting him at college. It took a few minutes but when we realized who each other was, it was great and wonderful to be reminded of the people who were nice to me. Tragically, this year John--the brother passed away. And at his funeral, I ran into so so so many nice people from Grade School.

I had been so focused on the negativity that I forgot all about the positiveness in the world. And sadly, it took such a horrible tragedy for me to realize this. Thanks John!

PurpleRules

Definitely the bad. Memories of good things tend to be very "fuzzy". The memories of bad times are very vivid and very specific.

Mactans

Consider memory from an evolutionary perspective. Much of what we learn, especially at an early age, is acquired by trial and error - heavy on the error. If our memories don't emphasize the errors, we risk repeating potentially dangerous behavior.

How long would a distant ancestor have lasted if she was focused on how good those berries tasted the last time she picked some, instead of on, say, the fact that wild pigs are dangerous and also loved those berries and one chased her up a tree the last time she picked some?

BTW, I remember both good and bad, but the bad comes to mind more easily.

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