Rosy Retrospection
We rate past events more positively than we rated them when they were occurring.
Rosy retrospection refers to the psychological phenomenon of people sometimes judging the past disproportionately more positively than they judge the present. It is related to nostalgia but distinct — it applies to recent past events too. People rate vacation experiences higher in memory than they rated them in real-time diary entries during the vacation itself.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life School Days Adults recall their school years as more fun and carefree than they recorded them being in diaries written at the time.
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.
During a challenging home renovation, Tom frequently argued with the contractor over delays and costs. Now, showing guests the finished kitchen, he says the whole process was 'smooth and enjoyable.'
After a difficult tax season where he made errors and paid penalties, a freelancer later tells a colleague, 'It was a headache, but I learned a ton about my finances.'
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
Get Debias on Google Play