Aug 16th, 2007
The Memories You Want To Forget Are The Hardest Ones To Lose
It seems that emotionally charged memories are the most difficult to lose. (A fact that I don’t find particularly surprising.) Another recent study (whose link I seem to have lost) suggests that writing down negative memories helps to alleviate their burden - and writing down positive memories seems to remove the positive effects as well. Though writing down small notes on what you’re thankful for reinforced them. Perhaps we should all be keeping journals of our most negative memories, and keeping post-its of our happiest ones.
“Our findings add to accumulating evidence that emotion places limits on the ability to control the contents of the mind,” Payne said. “Our results suggest that even a relatively mild emotional reaction can undermine intentional forgetting. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that emotional memories can never be intentionally forgotten. If the motivation to forget is powerful enough, individuals might be able to overcome the effects of emotion by enlisting additional coping strategies.”
Read: The Memories You Want To Forget Are The Hardest Ones To Lose