PHTwo people can live through the same relationship and later remember it differently.
Memory isn't a perfect video recording.
Current feelings can influence how people reconstruct previous relationship experiences.
When someone currently feels happy with a partner, past events may sometimes be remembered more positively.
When the relationship is struggling, previously minor negative experiences can become more psychologically prominent.
This doesn't necessarily mean either partner is deliberately lying.
Both can genuinely remember the same argument, date, or period of the relationship differently.
That's one reason “That's not how it happened” can become such a common sentence between couples.
© Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Memory isn't a perfect video recording.
Current feelings can influence how people reconstruct previous relationship experiences.
When someone currently feels happy with a partner, past events may sometimes be remembered more positively.
When the relationship is struggling, previously minor negative experiences can become more psychologically prominent.
This doesn't necessarily mean either partner is deliberately lying.
Both can genuinely remember the same argument, date, or period of the relationship differently.
That's one reason “That's not how it happened” can become such a common sentence between couples.
© Journal of Personality and Social Psychology