Why Can a Longer Unpleasant Experience Be Remembered More Favourably?

How unpleasant an experience feels while it is happening is not identical to how it is judged later. The peak-end effect describes a tendency for retrospective evaluations to give disproportionate weight to the most intense moment and the ending, rather than adding up every minute equally.

In a 1993 experiment, Kahneman and colleagues gave participants two cold-water trials. The short version placed a hand in 14°C water for 60 seconds. The long version began with the same 60 seconds, then continued for another 30 seconds while the water gradually warmed to 15°C—still uncomfortable, but somewhat less so. When asked which trial they would repeat, most chose the longer one. It contained more total discomfort, yet left a gentler ending.

This does not mean that people remember only “the peak plus the end”, or that extending pain is good practice. A 2022 meta-analysis of 174 effect sizes found robust effects of peaks and endings on retrospective evaluations, but the overall average feeling had comparable explanatory power; experience type, measurement and retention interval can also alter the pattern. Most importantly, remembering an episode more favourably does not mean suffering less while it occurred.

My view is that the effect asks us to separate two kinds of evidence. Process records tell us how an experience unfolded; retrospective evaluations tell us how it was remembered. Judging a trip, meeting or practice session only by its final impression can erase much of the process. Yet endings matter precisely because remembered experience helps shape whether we enter a similar situation again.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00589.x
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104149