Personal and Collective Mental Time Travel Across the Adult Lifespan During COVID-19

Older adults exhibit an age-related positivity effect, with more positivity for memories than young adults. Theoretical explanations attribute this phenomenon to greater emphasis on emotion regulation and well-being due to shortened time horizons. Adults, across the lifespan, also exhibit a collective negativity bias (more negativity about their country than their personal past and future) and a future-oriented positivity bias (more positivity for future projections than for memories). Threats to global health (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) may shorten future time horizons which may serve to impact emotional valence for memories and future projections. We investigated this possibility in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in young, middle-aged, and older adults (N = 434; age: 18−81 years), for positive and negative events in the past (2019) and future (2021) in the personal and collective domains, as well as for future excitement and worry in these same domains in 1 week, 1 year, and 5-10 years' time. We replicated the collective negativity bias and future-oriented positivity bias, indicating the robustness of these phenomena. However, the pattern of age-related positivity diverged for personal events such that young adults exhibited similar positivity to older adults and more positivity than middle-aged adults. Finally, consistent with theoretical proposals of better emotion regulation with age, older adults reported more muted excitement and worry for the long-term future compared to young adults. We discuss the implications of this work for understanding valence-based biases in memory and future projections across the adult lifespan. Public Significance Statement This study examined how adults across the lifespan remembered their personal and country's past and predicted their personal and country's future during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike the typical positivity reported for older adults, young adults were just as positive as older adults and more positive than middle-aged adults about their personal past and future. Like prior research, people were more negative about their country than their personal past and future, and more positive about their country's future than its past. Overall, results suggest that people's feelings toward their personal and their country's past and future can differ across the adult lifespan during turbulent times.