Dr Dougal Sutherland: Why do the "good old days" feel so good? - Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Why do we remember the “good old days” as being so good?  

In past weeks we’ve touched on events that are blasts from the past, or the good old days. Most people have fond memories of these good old days. Politicians refer to this too to pull on our heartstrings (and votes) e.g., “Make America Great Again” – the inference being that we can make it good like the past.  

So why do the good old days feel so good for most of us?  

Some of this is due to what psychologists call “the reminiscence bump”. It refers to our teenage and early adult years of life when we tend to have stronger memories about our lives and major events in life.  

You can almost date people’s ages by the time of their reminiscence bump – e.g., my teen and young adult years were in the late 80s, early 90s, so my favourite bands are from then (the Smiths), my favourite football team (Liverpool), favourite movie (Goodfellas), or TV shows (Seinfeld). 

Reminiscence bump breaks the general rule of autobiographical memory, which is that we typically have better memory for recent events compared to events that were longer ago. Contrasts with “childhood amnesia” which refers to the fact that we have few memories of our very early years of life. 

Why do we have this bump?  

One theory is that it’s related to the function of autobiographical memory (memory about ourselves and our own lives). This type of memory isn’t meant to be a video recording of our life that we simply tap back into and replay, it’s more about helping shape our view of who we are as individuals – our sense of self.  

In our teens and early adulthood we often are experiencing a number of first-time experiences – our first love, our first concert, going to Uni, or starting a first job.  

These experiences are new and unique and therefore often stand out in our memory. We might also talk about them more with others at the time, which helps us cement them into our memory more as we repeatedly bring them to mind and go over them.  

These first-time experiences help shape our view of who we are, what type of person I am – am I an Oasis fan or a Blur fan? Do I remember when Princess Di died? Do I love or loath the Royal Family?   

It also tends us to give a rosy view of the past because many of our memories from the bump are about new and exciting things.  

Be aware that ads and politicians will try to appeal to this. And remember that someone else’s good old days might be different to yours, but you both think of them as “good”. 

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