The concept of rosy retrospection has been noted in many contexts throughout human history. For example, people often reminisce about their childhood or early adulthood with a sense of fondness, even if those times were seen as less than ideal at the time. This tendency to romanticize the past has been noted in literature, art, and pop culture for centuries, and it suggests that it may be a fundamental aspect of human cognition.

Psychologists didn’t start to really study this phenomenon until the 1990s. Psychologist Terence Mitchell and Leigh Thompson conducted a study in 1997 and found that participants tended to recall events like vacations more positively than they had rated them while they were occurring.

Memory is maleable. Our brains don’t store memories like perfectly reconstructed videos of what really happened. Instead, we rebuild memories each time we think about them. How we feel now and what’s happened since then can change how we remember it.

Some researchers have proposed an evolutionary explanation for rosy retrospection. One theory suggests that this bias might serve as a coping mechanism. It helps us maintain a positive outlook and resilience in the face of challenges. By remembering past experiences more fondly, we might be more motivated to persevere through difficult times if we believe that things will improve just as we remember things improving for us in the past.

Rosy retrospection can impact how we work with our team over time, and it can impact how your users perceive any future updates.

For instance, users might remember an older version of you software more fondly than it deserves. This can lead to resistance when updates or changes are introduced. Users may be attached to their idealized memories of the previous version. They might provide overly positive feedback about past experiences with a product, potentially masking issues that need addressing. This can lead to misguided decisions on future features if not properly accounted for.

Rosy retrospection can influence how teams evaluate their past projects and collaborations. Team members might remember previous projects as more successful or enjoyable than they actually were. This can lead to the repetition of ineffective strategies and overlooking areas for improvement. This can be particularly problematic during project post-mortems or retros, where an assessment of past performance is crucial for future success.