Unpleasant affect fades faster than pleasant affect, and this phenomenon is referred to as the fading affect bias (FAB). The FAB is moderated and mediated by many variables, including rehearsal and memory specificity, and researchers have emphasized the importance of memory for the FAB, but research has not evaluated the link of the FAB to objective memory measures. Using diary methodology across the span of 1 week, the current study examined the relation of event memory to the FAB for (1) social media events in Experiment 1 (n = 30) and (2) social media and non‐social media events with longer titles in Experiment 2 (n = 63) than in Experiment 1. The FAB was negatively predicted by false memories for (1) social media events in Experiment 1 and (2) both social media and non‐social media events in Experiment 2. These relations were mediated by rehearsals in both experiments. Implications are discussed.
The fading affect bias (FAB) is a robust phenomenon where unpleasant affect fades faster than pleasant affect. The FAB is believed to be coping mechanism designed to make life appear pleasant in the face of hardships and adversities. The FAB persists across several cultures and many event types (e.g., alcohol, religious, and death), even though low FAB has been demonstrated for social media events, videogame events, and events labeled as religious, but not spiritual. Although religion is also believed to make life more satisfying by providing existential meaning and social connectedness for their followers, research to date, has not examined religious differences in the FAB. Therefore, we examined the FAB using 2 measures of fading affect across participants’ self-reported religious affiliations and we found robust FAB effects for all categories except for an extremely small sample of Islamic followers. The FAB effects were strongest for Jewish and Buddhist affiliations and they were weakest for participants who did not report a well-known religious affiliation. The findings extend the literature on the FAB to religious belief systems. Future research should replicate the current study, examine the FAB for larger samples of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews, and test explanations for differential FAB effects across religious affiliations.
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