Negative affect homogenizes and positive affect diversifies social memory consolidation across people

Abstract

We are often surprised when an interaction we remember positively is recalled by a peer negatively. What colors social memories with positive versus negative hues? We show that when resting after a social experience, individuals showing similar default network responding subsequently remember more negative information, while individuals showing idiosyncratic default network responding remember more positive information. Results were specific to rest after the social experience (as opposed to before or during the social experience, or rest after a nonsocial experience). For the first time, we identified post-encoding rest as a key moment and the default network as a key brain system in which negative affect homogenizes, whereas positive affect diversifies social memories. The results also provide novel neural evidence in support of the "broaden and build" theory of positive emotion, which posits that while negative affect confines, positive affect broadens idiosyncrasy in cognitive processing.