Fading Affect Bias
Emotions associated with negative memories fade faster than emotions associated with positive memories.
Fading affect bias (FAB) is a psychological phenomenon in which memories associated with negative emotions tend to be forgotten more quickly than memories associated with positive emotions. Memories of upsetting events (arguments, embarrassments) lose their emotional charge faster than memories of happy events. This contributes to rosy retrospection and may be an adaptive mechanism to maintain psychological well-being.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life Vacation Memory The difficulties of a difficult hiking trip fade; the peak views and summit achievement are remembered clearly.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
When Alex thinks about the time he got a parking ticket, he first remembers finding a great parking spot near his destination. The ticket itself and the annoyance feel like a minor detail.
The embarrassment of a social blunder at a party diminishes rapidly over the following weeks, while the compliments received that evening remain vividly remembered for many years.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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