How was acceptance linked to memories of emotional unpleasant events?

Details

People use different strategies to regulate their emotions when facing negative daily events. Previous literature links an event’s emotional qualities, such as valence and arousal, to characteristics of its memory, but the role of acceptance in memory remains largely unknown. Acceptance means being open to emotional experiences, thoughts and/or bodily sensations without trying to control, avoid or alter them.

The researchers aimed to explore in everyday life how using acceptance to deal with an unpleasant daily episode related to later memory of it. They used ecological assessment within a correlational study design: 73 participants reported an unpleasant episode on their smartphones as soon as possible after it happened and rated their momentary use of acceptance. To investigate the subjective qualities of memory, participants completed two surprise recall tasks, one after 1 week and the other after 1 month.

Acceptance significantly moderated the relationship between an event’s emotional intensity and its memory. People with low acceptance tended to recall more details of highly emotional events. In contrast, those with high acceptance recalled fewer details as the event’s emotional intensity increased.

The researchers suggested that acceptance may help people disengage from unpleasant life experiences by reducing their recall, potentially making it an adaptive emotion regulation strategy in emotionally activating circumstances. The study was not preregistered.