Memory and future thinking in time of pandemic: an individual or collective matter?
(2024) Special Interest Meeting in Autobiographical Processing and Psychopathology — Location: Leuven, Belgium (27.May.2024)
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- Abstract
- In 2020, amid an unprecedented global pandemic and following governmental instructions, families sought refuge within their homes, uncertain of the future. It is within this exceptional context that we explored the memories and future thoughts of Belgians. 584 individuals completed two online questionnaires—one at the beginning of the first lockdown and another shortly after the measures were lifted. Participants were tasked with recalling or imagining (depending on whether the event had occured or was yet to come) the first day of lockdown, the first day when lockdown measures were lifted, and Belgian National Day. Analyses revealed unexpected results regarding the capacity for mental time travel (MTT). During the lockdown, participants displayed lower MTT scores when recalling the recent past (beginning of the lockdown) compared to envisioning the near future (end of the lockdown). However, as the lockdown ended, memories of its commencement had higher MTT scores than memories of its conclusion, despite the latter being more recent. To interpret these findings, we consider personal elements (emotions, personality traits) and collective factors (social identity). We propose that these autobiographical pandemic memories hold not only individual significance but also contribute to a collective understanding of the shared experience.
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Cordonnier, A. (2024). Memory and future thinking in time of pandemic: an individual or collective matter? Special Interest Meeting in Autobiographical Processing and Psychopathology, Leuven, Belgium. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/236727