A theory of temporal adjustments of the evaluation of events: Rosy Prospection & Rosy Retrospection

Mitchell, T. & Thompson, L. (1994). A theory of temporal adjustments of the evaluation of events: Rosy Prospection & Rosy Retrospection. In C. Stubbart, J. Porac, & J. Meindl (Eds.), Advances in managerial cognition and organizational information-processing, Vol. 5, (85-114) Greenwich, CT.: JAI press.

Abstract

This article presents a theory of people’s evaluations of personal events in their lives. The main thesis is that people’s anticipation of certain types of events and their recollection of these events are in many cases more positive than the experience of the actual event. We conceptualize this phenomenon as a constellation of three distinct processes: Rosy Prospection (the tendency for people to anticipate events as more favorable and positive than they describe the experience at the time of its occurrence), Dampening (the tendency for people to minimize the favorability or pleasure of events they are currently experiencing), and Rosy Retrospection (the tendency for people to remember and recollect events they experience more fondly and positively than they evaluated them to be at the time of their occurrence). Using principles of information processing, we identify the key cognitive processing mechanisms that we believe produce the "rosy effect." We then develop a regression model that describes how people evaluate events. We next describe the cognitive and motivational factors that we believe produce the effect. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the rosy effect for personal effectiveness and well-being.