William Chopik

But then there's a sense in which it still changes when you're older, and that's also linked to relationship stuff, too.

So we found getting a divorce also kind of negatively warped your memories of the past.

So you're not out of it just yet.

I don't know if it's the wrong way to frame it.

It's a little too dramatic.

So the truth is, yeah, we buried the lead where we asked people three times about childhood trauma and adversity.

And for the most part, they gave really similar answers.

So it's not like they went from a 10 to a 1 or a 1 to a 10.

So they were pretty stable over time.

But then there were certain waves when people kind of embellished the more positive aspects or dwelled on the negative aspects.

So we are, to some extent,

reliable narrators.

But when it gets around the fringes, that's when we start to kind of, you know, editorialize a few of these memories.

Yeah, so again, like all the relationships were somewhat contributors to your memories, and they were associated with kind of good and bad relationships.

But yeah, by far, the biggest determinant was your relationship with your parents.

And a lot of the participants in the study were college students, so they were still in regular contact with their parents.

So...

Yeah, and actually when people report on adversity, a lot of those experiences involve, you guessed it, their parents.

So again, in a way, you're interacting with these people and actively reflecting on your previous relationships with these same people.

So that's one obvious reason why we think they're related is because you're thinking of your previous relationship with them as well.