The COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted the healthy fading of emotions in autobiographical memory mediated via in‐person social disclosures

Abstract

AbstractWe explore the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom upon the fading affect bias in autobiographical memory, which describes the greater fading of negative emotional intensity over time compared to positive. Across two studies we show that the magnitude of the FAB is smaller for pandemic‐related events compared to pandemic‐unrelated events. The FAB is thought to represent the result of healthy coping processes operating on autobiographical memory and our results indicate that these processes were disrupted, to a certain extent, by the pandemic. These effects were mediated by frequent in‐person social disclosures of pleasant pandemic‐unrelated events, which was, in turn, associated with less fading of positive affect. Further, the FAB for both pandemic‐related and unrelated events was mediated by disclosures via social media. Together, these results highlight the potential effectiveness of using various modes of communication to facilitate emotional regulation processes in autobiographical memory.