The Illusion of Nostalgia: Cognitive Biases That Trick Us Into Thinking That the Past Was Better

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You are the most important asset in your company. Not the systems, not the processes. YOU.

And you have a massive impact more than you can imagine on the lives of the others around you regardless of whether you are in a leadership role or not.

And to do your best and help your company grow, positively impact the people around you, and make better decisions each day, you need to learn to control your emotional state.

And this is why, I speak from time to time about things that can impact your emotional state negatively such as my LinkedIn article ''Disconnect to Reconnect: Mastering the Art of Being Present in the Moment '' or ''The High Cost of Ignoring Red Flags: Lessons from Business and Relationships ''.

If you haven't checked them yet, then I highly recommend that you press the links up and take some minutes to read them.

And today, I want to speak about something that negatively impacts our emotional states.

I hear a lot of people say that the past was better especially when they have a bad day.

For example, they can fly with their imaginations and say that they felt less stressed, had more fun, felt more alive in the past, or that their company was a better place in the past than it is now.

And if you are one of the people who feel so, I am not here to argue with you or to try to prove that you are wrong. I just want to share with you what science says regarding this topic and leave the judgment to you.

According to brain scientists, we -as normal human beings- do not know a lot about our brains. And because of this, our brains are tricking us.

Here are three scientific reasons why we see the past as better than the present moment:

1- Self-image and memory retrieval.

When we want to retrieve or recall a past situation from our memories, our brain does that in two steps:

1) enhancement. This means that our brain keeps searching for the required relevant memory and then enhances it as a preparation to recall it back.

2) Inhibition. Which means disabling or preventing irrelevant memories from appearing on the surface in order not to distort the enhanced and recalled memory.

What is the relationship between this and self-image?

Self-image is how you see yourself, how others see you, and how you think or perceive how others see you.

To build a healthy self-image, you need to think positively about yourself, and since most people have a good self-image regarding themselves when they recall their memories they tend to enhance the good and positive ones and inhibit the negative ones

(and if you doubt that most people have a good self-image regarding themselves to the extent that they in a lot of cases deceive themselves into living in an illusion, I invite you to read my previous Linkedin article ''The Illusion of Perfection: How Positive Illusion Causes Workplace Problems '').

2- Thinking more abstractly about the past.

A lot of research confirmed that we tend to think about the past abstractly. Which means that we do not really think and see the full picture.

While we are now having life pressure and demands such as long working hours, bills to pay, commitments toward family members…etc. We rarely remember these demands and pressures when we think about the past.

3- Relativity.

Dan Ariely , a well-known Psychology and behavioral economics professor, mentioned in his wonderful book ‘’Predictably Irrational’’ that our brains are wired to make comparisons.

He also mentioned that ‘’people do not only compare things but also compare things that are easily comparable.’’

We compare ourselves to others around us; we compare buildings with other buildings, products with products, and travel destinations with other travel destinations. The same thing is regarding our memories.

We always tend to compare the present moment with something comparable, and for us, this means our past moments.

But the problem with this approach is that when we remember something from the past, we usually remember the evaluation itself and not the basis of the evaluation.

You can remember that a restaurant or an evening was fantastic, but most probably you will not remember the basis of why it was fantastic.

Not only this, as we grow in age as human beings, we live more experiences in life and do more things, and hence our level of knowledge gets better, and it becomes harder and harder to make us feel satisfied.

The place that you judged as amazing in the past may now be normal to you because you now have more experience and have seen more other places than when you judged this restaurant ten years ago.

?So, the next time you fly with your imagination and say ''I miss those days'', remember that maybe they were not as beautiful as you think, and try to pause for a moment and think more objectively before judging.

I work with leaders and teams as a consultant and advisor...

1- To help leaders gain clarity regarding their next steps, transform their organizations, and amplify their influence, without working extended hours.

2- Boost the performance, motivation, and engagement levels of teams (such as sales, marketing, and engineering teams).

3- Improve cross-functional collaboration and redesign the workplace culture (especially in cases of restructures, and mergers and acquisitions).

If you need advice regarding any of these topics, send me a message or a direct email: [email protected]