Memories:

Adam Mastroianni:

"It makes sense that both joy and pain fade with time—stuff just feels less intense when it's farther away—but why does pain fade faster? It’s because when bad stuff happens to us, our psychological immune systems turn on. We start to rationalize (“Why would I want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with me?”), downplay (“Breakups happen all the time in high school, it’s no big deal”), distance (“I never liked her that much anyway!”) and distract (“I’m gonna go play video games”). These mental processes function like emotional antibodies, taking the sting out of bad memories. We don’t use them on good memories, so good memories keep their luster longer.

The fading affect bias deserves higher regard because it’s got a message everybody should hear: things that feel bad today will probably feel less bad in the future. “Tragedy + time = comedy" is the closest thing psychology has to a chemical equation. So when your girlfriend dumps you and you’re feeling awful, pretty much all you have to do is wait, and you’re allowed to play Yu-Gi-Oh! in the meantime. Plus, when something feels great, you can rest assured that it will probably still feel good decades from now. Everything is temporary, bad stuff especially. I find that very comforting."