HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 31 July 2018 - Vivid memories and emotions about things affect our perceptions of when they took place, but can the chance of them happening again also influence how we regard the past?
Those of us who watched the Hollywood hit movie, La La Land, which focuses on a bitter-sweet love affair between a musician and an aspiring actress, may have been reminded of experiences we had with a former boyfriend or girlfriend.
When talking to colleagues and friends, they all agreed that their past experiences with their former partners -- whether taking a vacation in Bali, for example, or going out for dinner, having a fight, or just a conversation -- feel particularly remote now. Why is this?
Research has shown that the vividness of a past trip and the emotions associated with it can influence people's perceptions of when it took place. But can our perceived future also influence our past memories?
The findings of the published paper, "Looking Forward and Looking Back: The Likelihood of an Event's Future Reoccurrence Affects Perceptions of the Time It Occurred in the Past" by PhD Candidate Kao Si, Visiting Professor Robert S. Wyer, and Associate Professor Xianchi Dai, all from the Department of Marketing at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, have provided some useful answers to these questions.
Looking at a Past Trip and its Possible Reoccurrence
In the research, the researchers considered another determinant -- the likelihood of the event occurring again. Specifically, they suggested that people consider past events to be more distant if the chance of their reoccurrence is low.
A past vacation in Bali, for example, seems more remote to people if they will never go there again, rather than if they are likely to return next year.
Their hypothesis is based on two assumptions: First, that people believe a future event to be more imminent if there is high -- rather than low -- likelihood of it occurring. Second, people's perceptions of when a former event will reoccur have a positive influence on their judgments about when it previously took place. **urc
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