Rosy Retrospection
Pollyanna Principle
A tendency to remember the past more positively than it actually was, judging earlier experiences as better than they seemed at the time.
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Origin
Psychologists Terence Mitchell and Leigh Thompson identified and named the "rosy view" phenomenon in a 1997 study that tracked people's feelings before, during, and after vacations — finding that participants consistently remembered trips more positively than they had experienced them. The Romans had noticed something similar centuries earlier, calling it memoria praeteritorum bonorum — "the past is always well remembered."
Updated February 22, 2026