Experiencing Self and Remembering Self

Daniel Kahneman arrived at the distinction through research on pain and well-being, and he gives it the closing part of Thinking, Fast and Slow. The experiencing self answers the question 'how does it feel now?'; the remembering self answers 'how was it, on the whole?' The two often disagree, and the remembering self wins, because it is the one that keeps score and the one consulted when we plan the next holiday, decide whether to repeat a treatment or recommend a doctor. Its scorekeeping is selective. It judges an episode largely by its most intense moment and by how it ended, the peak-end rule, and pays little attention to how long it lasted, which Kahneman calls duration neglect. He tells of a man who listened with delight to a long symphony on a recording that ended in a harsh scratching noise, and who felt the scratch had ruined the whole experience. It had ruined only the memory; the music had already been lived. Kahneman also offers a thought experiment: if every photo and memory of a holiday were erased at the end, would you still choose the same trip? The answer shows which self you are planning for. Neither self is the right one; good decisions consult both.