%0 Journal Article
%T Misremembering Solitude: The Role of Personality and Cultural Self-Concepts in Shaping Discrepancies Between Recalled and Concurrent Affect in Solitude.
%A Lay JC
%A Ho YW
%A Tse DCK
%A Tse JTK
%A Jiang D
%J J Pers
%V 0
%N 0
%D 2024 Aug 16
%M 39149879
%F 5.429
%R 10.1111/jopy.12971
%X <B>BACKGROUND: </B>Affect recall is key to psychological assessment and decision-making. However, self-concepts (self-beliefs) may bias retrospective affect reports such that they deviate from lived experiences. Does this experience-memory gap apply to solitude experiences? We hypothesized that individuals misremember how they feel overall and when in solitude, in line with self-concepts of introversion, self-determined/not-self-determined solitude motivations, and independent/interdependent self-construal. A pilot study comparing retrospective to daily affect reports captured over 2 weeks (N = 104 UK university students) provided preliminary evidence of introversion and not-self-determined solitude shaping affect recall.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>In the main pre-registered study, participants aged 18-49 in the UK (N = 160) and Hong Kong (N = 159) reported their momentary affective states and social situations 5 times per day over 7 days, then recalled how they felt over the week.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>Individuals higher in self-determined solitude were more prone to retrospectively overestimate their high- and low-arousal positive affect in solitude and showed less overestimation/more underestimation of negative affect in solitude. Higher not-self-determined solitude was associated with overestimating loneliness, and higher interdependent self-construal with overestimating loneliness and energy levels, in solitude. Comparisons based on residence/ethnicity suggest culture influences solitude-seeking and affective memory. Implications for well-being and affect measurement are discussed.