Scripts, agents, and interpretations: Delving into the valence biases of mental time travel.

Hirst, William; Topçu, Meymune N.

doi:10.1037/mac0000105

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…For instance, Zerr et al (2023) suggest that the valence-based dissociation between personal and collective cognition may be tied to the fluency-based cueing techniques that have dominated early studies in this area. Moreover, Zerr et al (2023) and Habermas et al (2023) suggest that additional work with narrative-based techniques is needed to better understand not just what events come to mind but the situational context, meaning, and function of those events (see also Daley et al, 2023; Hirst & Topçu, 2023).…”

Section: Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another central aspect of our account of the valence-based differences that emerge between personal and national event cognition is rooted in the role of cultural scripts and narratives that guide both the lives of individuals and nations. Hirst and Topçu (2023) suggest that cultural scripts may be more suitable for explaining such effects at the personal level than the national level. Indeed, Janssen (2015) attempted to determine whether public events, which they also found to be construed by participants as more negative than positive, might be organized according to a cultural script but did not find any evidence that this was the case.…”

Section: Scripts Narratives and Temporal Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the relations between personal and national event cognition: Theoretical and methodological considerations.

Szpunar¹,

Liu²

2023

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

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The way personal and collective event cognition are alike, differ from, and interact with one another is drawing considerable attention from researchers across several disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and the humanities. In this reply to commentaries on our target article (Liu & Szpunar, 2023), we address calls for future studies to diversify both the nature of event cueing techniques that are used to evoke personal and collective event cognitions and to expand the study of collective cognition beyond the level of the nation. In addition to these methodological considerations, we emphasize that theoretical accounts of the relation(s) between personal and collective event cognition will not only need to consider the individual (e.g., episodic memory) and group-based (e.g., cultural scripts and narratives) processes that are the focus of many of the commentaries but also the dynamism between individuals and groups.

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Section: Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Scripts Narratives and Temporal Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the relations between personal and national event cognition: Theoretical and methodological considerations.

Szpunar¹,

Liu²

2023

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

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“…The present research showed that the relation between valence, perceived agency, and personal and collective mental time travel can be context specific. The valence-based dissociation found in Shirkanth et al (2018) is not always robust even in WEIRD countries (Hirst & Topçu, 2023). Certain public events that intersect personal and collective domains, like the COVID-19 pandemic, can alter the patterns of differences between personal and collective MTT, especially for future thought.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…There are a few studies of personal and collective MTT that have failed to show the aforementioned dissociation between personal and collective MTT or demonstrate an attenuated dissociation (Hirst & Topçu, 2023). One such study involved a sample from a non-WEIRD country, China, in which Deng et al (2022) did not observe a dissociation in valence biases.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

When the personal and the collective intersects: Memory, future thinking, and perceived agency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Topçu,

Hirst

2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Do collective crises have an impact on the characteristics of mental time travel for individuals and collectives? The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique context to address this question due to the intersection it created between the personal and the collective domains. In two studies (N = 273), we examined the valence and perceived agency involved in memory and future thinking for personal and collective domains. The second study also included a longitudinal component with 43 participants completing both studies. In research done prior to the pandemic, a valence-based dissociation between personal and collective events was consistently observed in Western samples. We wanted to see if these patterns changed during different stages of the pandemic. In the first study, participants no longer exhibited the usual positivity bias for the personal future, while in the second study, they did not exhibit the usual negativity bias for the collective future. The second aim of the current article was to assess the agency people attribute to themselves and their nation over events and how that relates to valence. People always attributed more agency to themselves over positive events than negative events in both personal and collective domains. Perceived nation agency, however, was associated with positivity in the collective domain but with negativity in the personal domain. Longitudinal analyses confirmed these patterns. Taken together, these results indicate that a collective crisis that has immediate and profound effects on personal lives can alter the patterns observed for mental time travel, especially for the future. Public Significance StatementThis research suggests that collective crises like the COVID-19 pandemic can have an impact on the rate of positive or negative events we expect to happen in our own future and in our nation's future. In addition, the research also shows that we attribute more agency to ourselves over positive than negative personal and national events, and we attribute more agency to our nation over positive than negative national events.

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Scripts, agents, and interpretations: Delving into the valence biases of mental time travel.

Abstract: This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Cited by 2 publications

References 29 publications

On the relations between personal and national event cognition: Theoretical and methodological considerations.

On the relations between personal and national event cognition: Theoretical and methodological considerations.

When the personal and the collective intersects: Memory, future thinking, and perceived agency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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