Social (dis)engagement and affective experiences: What can we learn by combining retrospective, forecasted, and momentary reports

Accurately recalling and forecasting our own affective experiences is key to guiding our behaviour - for example, our social and solitary activities - in ways that maximize wellbeing. However, self-knowledge has its limits. This talk will examine ways in which self-knowledge (specifically, self-reported personality, trait affect, and solitude preferences) may bias individuals' memory such that their recalled and forecasted affective experiences align more with expectations than with reality. I will present findings from three experience-sampling studies examining how accurately individuals recall and predict their own affective experiences and solitude experiences, including an on-going study examining these processes in daily life during the current pandemic. This work aims to identify ways that individuals may identify and correct for inaccuracies in self-knowledge.