Amnesic Vacations
Kahneman uses an imagined vacation that leaves no memories to explore a tension between enjoying an experience and valuing its story afterward. The thought experiment asks how much our choices serve the experiencing self and how much they serve the remembering self.
THE IDEA
AMNESIC VACATIONS
Consider the choice of a vacation. Do you prefer to enjoy a relaxing week at the familiar beach to which you went last year? Or do you hope to enrich your store of memories? Distinct industries have developed to cater to these alternatives: resorts offer restorative relaxation; tourism is about helping people construct stories and collect memories. The frenetic picture taking of many tourists suggests that storing memories is often an important goal, which shapes both the plans for the vacation and the experience of it. The photographer does not view the scene as a moment to be savored but as a future memory to be designed. Pictures may be useful to the remembering self—though we rarely look at them for very long, or as often as we expected, or even at all—but picture taking is not necessarily the best way for the tourist’s experiencing self to enjoy a view.
In many cases we evaluate touristic vacations by the story and the memories that we expect to store. The word memorable is often used to describe vacation highlights, explicitly revealing the goal of the experience. In other situations—love comes to mind—the declaration that the present moment will never be forgotten, though not always accurate, changes the character of the moment. A self-consciously memorable experience gains a weight and a significance that it would not otherwise have.
Ed Diener and his team provided evidence that it is the remembering self that chooses vacations. They asked students to maintain daily diaries and record a daily evaluation of their experiences during spring break. The students also provided a global rating of the vacation when it had ended. Finally, they indicated whether or not they intended to repeat or not to repeat the vacation they had just had. Statistical analysis established that the intentions for future vacations were entirely determined by the final evaluation—even when that score did not accurately represent the quality of the experience that was described in the diaries. As in the cold-hand experiment, right or wrong, people choose by memory when they decide whether or not to repeat an experience.
A thought experiment about your next vacation will allow you to observe your attitude to your experiencing self.
At the end of the vacation, all pictures and videos will be destroyed. Furthermore, you will swallow a potion that will wipe out all your memories of the vacation.
How would this prospect affect your vacation plans? How much would you be willing to pay for it, relative to a normally memorable vacation?
While I have not formally studied the reactions to this scenario, my impression from discussing it with people is that the elimination of memories greatly reduces the value of the experience. In some cases, people treat themselves as they would treat another amnesic, choosing to maximize overall pleasure by returning to a place where they have been happy in the past. However, some people say that they would not bother to go at all, revealing that they care only about their remembering self, and care less about their amnesic experiencing self than about an amnesic stranger. Many point out that they would not send either themselves or another amnesic to climb mountains or trek through the jungle—because these experiences are mostly painful in real time and gain value from the expectation that both the pain and the joy of reaching the goal will be memorable.
For another thought experiment, imagine you face a painful operation during which you will remain conscious. You are told you will scream in pain and beg the surgeon to stop. However, you are promised an amnesia-inducing drug that will completely wipe out any memory of the episode. How do you feel about such a prospect? Here again, my informal observation is that most people are remarkably indifferent to the pains of their experiencing self. Some say they don’t care at all. Others share my feeling, which is that I feel pity for my suffering self but not more than I would feel for a stranger in pain. Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me.
When to use it
Vacation planning: Deciding between a relaxing resort (maximizing immediate pleasure) and an adventurous trip (creating memorable stories).
Marketing: Tailoring travel packages to appeal to either the experiencing self (luxury, relaxation) or the remembering self (unique experiences, photo ops).
Patient communication: Asking separately about distress during an experience and memories afterward, rather than assuming that forgetting an experience removes its importance.
Personal productivity: Balancing documentable achievements vs. enjoying the process; e.g., taking excessive notes at a conference vs. engaging in conversations.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Tourist Photography
Tourists often take many pictures to preserve memories, but this can detract from the in-the-moment enjoyment of the view. The photographer focuses on designing a future memory rather than savoring the present.
Spring Break Study (Diener et al.)
Students kept daily diaries of their spring break experiences and provided a final global rating. In the study Kahneman describes, their intentions to repeat the vacation tracked the final evaluation even when it differed from the diary ratings. He uses the result to illustrate choosing by memory.
Memory-Wiped Vacation Thought Experiment
Kahneman asks people to imagine a vacation after which all memories and photos are destroyed. In his informal discussions, some say the trip would lose much of its value; others would choose familiar pleasures. The responses expose differences in what people want from an experience.
Painful Operation with Amnesia
Kahneman also imagines a painful conscious operation followed by complete amnesia. He reports informal reactions, including indifference to the pain and pity for the suffering self as though it were a stranger. This is a thought experiment about valuation, not a study of patients undergoing operations.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How would your vacation choices change if you knew you would have no memory of the trip afterwards?
Think of a recent experience you chose based on its potential to be memorable. Did that choice sacrifice some immediate enjoyment?
In what areas of life do you prioritize the remembering self over the experiencing self? Are there situations where the opposite would be better?
References
- Spring Break Vacation Memory Study — Ed Diener et al.
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)