Science says: Leave the best experience at the end of your vacation

Science says: Leave the best experience at the end of your vacation

Usually people look forward to their vacation and look forward to all the happy moments they will experience during this period. Sometimes the holidays are really like that, other times they leave the tourists with complete disappointment.

However, it turns out You have some control over what memories you will have after your vacation is over. If you want to have happy moments in your mind, Leave the best experience at the end of the holiday.

According to what is known in psychology The rule of supreme and end, People determine an experience by its zenith (the most extreme point, positive or negative) and its outcome. It may seem very logical to base judgment on the arithmetic mean “sum” of all experiences, but the human brain simply does not do so.

The rest of the information from the experience is not lost, but is not used in the creation of memories.

According to two psychologists, the authors of Destiny – Daniel Conman and Barbara Frederickson, apply Any event with a clear beginning and clear end – Such as leave (but not even a doctor’s visit or a work day).

When One of the studies Kahman immerses participants in cold water (14 degrees) for 60 seconds. Then he keeps doing the same, but after 60 seconds let them dip their hand for another 30 seconds, this time raising the temperature to 15 degrees.

Surprisingly, when asked which experiment they would like to repeat, most participants opted for the latter, even though it provided a longer stay in cold water. The reason, according to Kahnemann, is the preferred memory of the end of a long experience (mild warming of water).

When Another test Participants had to wait for the computer program to serve. For some, at the end of the wait, the queue suddenly went faster than expected. Although both groups were unhappy most of the time waiting, finally those with a good memory (moving the tail) described the overall experience as interesting.

Daniel Conman, Israeli psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for his research in the field of behavioral economics (the study of decision-making policy through the prism of emotional, cultural and psychological factors).

If you use his theory, you will realize that you do not have much control over the peak of your vacation (there is no way to know whether it is positive or negative), but at least you can go to the end of some of your favorite actions to make sure you return home with wonderful memories.

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