Long, long ago, in springtime, we started into life lessons from Sheldon Cooper. In the spirit of spring, we focused on “Change is never fine. They say it is, but it isn’t.” Interestingly, one of Sheldon’s commonly quoted idols, Albert Einstein, once said something that would likely have greatly distressed Sheldon: “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
Change is inevitable; in fact, the one constant, as they say, is change. (Not that we stop to ask who ‘they’ are, but that’s a question from a different day.) I suppose I can agree that change is not always bad.
Now, a new lesson. Things aren’t always as we remember. Sheldon enthusiasts will appreciate this insight, but it demands you watch two entire television show series (or this one letter on Consumer Corner) – The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. Adult Sheldon Cooper presents a quite sad story about his childhood in Texas with a drunk father who cheats on his mother in a land populated with idiots. The child Sheldon, however, experiences a loving father who admittedly makes mistakes but cares deeply about his family. It turns out, things aren’t always as we remember.
Be careful with eyewitness testimonies. They’re notoriously unreliable. Equally important is the vigilance you must exercise in scrutinizing your own eyewitness testimonies, aka memories. They’re maybe, potentially, probably somewhat unreliable as well. Even with perfect recallability (which you don’t have), you still need to take into account that your memory is only a recollection of the events, activities and happenings from one perspective – yours.
Memories matter, and not only as things that happen in the past. The recallability trap is a commonly recognized decision-making psychological trap. A traumatic or particularly impactful event in your own experiences or life can distort your ability to recall events in a balanced way. We, as humans, try to use expectations of the future to make decisions about what to do next. We’re always trying to predict future outcomes, yet we are overly influenced by the events that left a strong impression on our memories. We recall things based on what was impactful or traumatic to us. Then, we use that impression to color our perceptions of what happens next. If you just witnessed something happen, you will likely assign it a higher probability of happening in the future. But is it? I suppose it could be. But that isn’t a hard and fast rule. And remember, things aren’t always as you remember. So that memory you relied upon to alter your perception of the future … are you sure?
ConsumerCorner.2023.Letter.18
