Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Why do we remember the “good old days” as being so good?   In past weeks we’ve touched on events that are blasts from the past, or the good old days. Most people have fond memories of these good old days. Politicians refer to this too to pull on our heartstrings (and votes) e.g., “Make America Great Again” – the inference being that we can make it good like the past.   So why do the good old days feel so good for most of us?   Some of this is due to what psychologists call “the reminiscence bump”. It refers to our teenage and early adult years of life when we tend to have stronger memories about our lives and major events in life.   You can almost date people’s ages by the time of their reminiscence bump – e.g., my teen and young adult years were in the late 80s, early 90s, so my favourite bands are from then (the Smiths), my favourite football team (Liverpool), favourite movie (Goodfellas), or TV shows (Seinfeld).  Reminiscence bump breaks the general rule of autobiographical memory,