History & CultureMental model
The good old days were never as good as you remember.
In studies by Mitchell and Thompson, travellers rated the same trip far more positively afterwards than during it – despite delays and bad weather. The effect scales up: societies declare whole eras golden ages and the present a decline. The Romans already had a name for it: memoria praeteritorum bonorum.
Useful: Compare past and present using data, not memories.
Source: en.wikipedia.org