Psykologisk Institut

Personal life stories are generally about the self. However, they often contain information about important events from other people’s lives. Young and older participants from Mexico, Greenland, China, and Denmark recalled and dated seven autobiographical memories of important events that they would include in their life story. Participants also rated the memories for importance and emotional valence. The content of the memories was coded to determine whether they were self- or other-focused memories. Results showed that across cultures and age groups, self-focused memories were, on average, positive while other-focused memories were, on average, negative, with no differences in importance ratings.