Recall bias in emotional intensity ratings: investigating person-level and event-level predictors

Abstract

Individuals’ recall of past emotions is often biased. Previous studies have focused on personality dispositions as predictors of such bias, but not yet on event-level (within-person) predictors (beyond the valence of emotions). We investigated whether personally more relevant events and higher momentary clarity of the elicited emotions yield less recall bias. To indicate emotional clarity, we used a response-time-based measure. We also examined whether extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness would predict between-person differences in recall bias. The results of an experience sampling study (534 events nested in 72 individuals) showed that, on average, positive emotions were retrospectively overestimated, whereas negative emotions were recalled more accurately. Multilevel models revealed that negative emotions were overestimated for events characterized by lower personal relevance and lower momentary emotional clarity. On the person level, higher conscientiousness was related to a smaller recall bias for positive and negative emotions. The findings suggest that the accuracy of retrospective judgments of emotions varies systematically both within and between persons.