Effects of Emotion on Hindsight Bias in Younger and Older Adults

Adult age differences in hindsight bias (HB) have been attributed to age-related changes in cognitive and motivational processes. However, little is known about the effect of emotion on HB. Using a memory paradigm of HB, with two to three weeks between Time 1 and Time 2, we were interested in studying whether the emotional valence of information can influence HB in younger and older adults. We tested this question in the context of an emotionally charged real-world event -- the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election (Study 1A) -- as well as general knowledge questions that varied in emotional valence (Studies 1B and 2). Taken together, our findings suggest that negative emotions may enhance HB in real-world contexts, and that age differences in HB are highly sensitive to methodological differences.