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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : January 9, 2013 12:07 PM IST
'The end of history illusion', the name of a phenomenon discovered by researchers at Harvard University says that people mistakenly believe that they are always the finished product. A study of 19,000 people found that when people looked back in retrospection it was easy to see how much they had changed when compared to looking into the future, when they were rarely able to see how different they were going to be.
For the study, respondents in the age group of 18 to 68 were asked about their values, personalities and things they liked to do. While some were asked to reflect back over the last 10 years, others were asked to predict how they would change in the next decade. The findings from the study have helped to explain why teenagers who get a tattoo think that they will never regret it, even if they do so later. And also, people across all age ranges underestimated how much they would have changed in the future.
Daniel Gilbert, lead researcher and psychologist at the University said, 'What we never seem to realise is that our future selves will look back and think the very same thing about us. At every age we think we're having the last laugh, and at every age we're wrong. Life is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops, despite the fact that at every age from 18 to 68, we think it's pretty much come to a close.' Researcher Jordi Quoidbach added, 'Believing that we just reached the peak of our personal evolution makes us feel good. The 'I wish that I knew then what I know now' experience might give us a sense of satisfaction and meaning, whereas realising how transient our preferences and values are might lead us to doubt every decision and generate anxiety.'
