Current level of happiness could cloud your memory, researchers say

BOSTON – A new study says your current level of happiness may cloud your memory of how happy you were in the past.

A study recently published in the journal psychological science examined data from more than 11,000 participants and found that people who reported higher current life satisfaction were more likely to report having an upward climb in their happiness over the past 10 years.

But those who reported lower current life satisfaction were more likely to report dips in their well-being over the past decade.

That is, happy people may tend to overstate the improvement in their level of satisfaction over time whereas unhappy people tend to overstate declines in their level of happiness.

The researchers say that our current feelings of contentment can interfere with memories of our past well-being.