What is it about?
Remembering a social occasion together and coming to an agreement on the memory creates a strong sense of belonging. This study looks at how our individual memories are adapted as we share them with others to create a shared reality. This synchronisation of memory is an important part of human social interaction and has great potential for improving wellbeing.
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Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Having fallible and malleable memories means that we can gain pleasure long after an experience as we reminisce with others, making our memories fit with each others. Aligning memories, usually of good times, has much potential in improving mental wellbeing by creating a stronger sense of belonging.
Perspectives
Overall, we find again and again that the memories shared are of social moments. It is the being and doing with others that remains in memory. There is pleasure to be gained, long after the experience, in remembering these moments together. Thus, in cocreating an agreed version of the past our emotions become synchronised and a feeling of belonging and kinship develops.
Professor Emma Harriet Wood
Leeds Beckett University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Shared Festival Tourism Experiences: The Power and Purpose of Remembering Together, Journal of Travel Research, March 2023, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/00472875231158591.
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