Duration neglect

Duration neglect is when people do not give much importance to the length of time something has happened or will happen. Imagine if you got a small scratch on your arm that only lasts for a few minutes, but it hurts a lot. You might feel like it's the worst pain you have ever felt, even though it didn't last very long. This is an example of duration neglect because you're ignoring the fact that the pain was only there for a short time.

Another example of duration neglect is when you look back at an event or memory and remember it as either good or bad based on how it ended, rather than how long it lasted. For instance, if you went on a trip that was enjoyable except for the last day, you might remember the entire trip as not being as good as it actually was because you're focusing too much on the bad ending.

The reason for duration neglect is that our brains tend to prioritize the most intense or memorable moments of an event over the length of time it lasted. This is because humans evolved to quickly evaluate whether something is dangerous or not (for example, if something hurt us). So, our brains are wired to pay more attention to the intensity of an experience than how long it lasted.

Therefore, it's important to remember that duration neglect can affect our perceptions and memories of events. We need to consciously try to take into account how long something lasted and not just focus on the most intense part of the experience.