The Power Of Positive Reflection

In 1996 Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues carried out a unique experiment to demonstrate what they called the peak-end rule – bear with me on this.  Essentially our memory of an event is influenced by the most emotional part of the event and the end of the event. Two groups of patients were given a colonoscopy but one group the procedure ended with a few minutes of the scope not being moved (less painful) as opposed to the other group who just had it removed.  The patients’ memory of the event, when they reported the discomfort of the procedure, was correlated to the intensity of the pain at its worst (peak) and the final (end) moments.