The Recency Effect

The Recency Effect is a fallacy that occurs when we think something is conclusive only because it's consistent with recent events. I suppose you could call it drawing the most obvious conclusion. However, there's usually more going on in the world than what recent events would suggest. North Korea was blamed for the cyber-attack on Sony last November because they'd just been the topic of a derogatory film and they had committed similar attacks in the  past. So, who else could it be, right? Cyber-security experts found it was more likely a former employee with a grudge.  Only by then, media reports had already blamed North Korea. This fallacy is so persistent that President Obama is still convinced that North Korea was behind the attack. He has pledged a full "proportional" response.

saorise

Body surfing

Ducking out underneath a breaking swell

the gag reel

I know memory isn't a passive record of events.  It's more like a re-construction. When this happens, I consistently get the order of things wrong.  I often confuse what happened at one time for something that happened at another time.  Last night I was watching a gag reel from season five of Parks and Recreation. In an early scene, Andy asks his young wife April if she's pregnant. April responds saying: "Nooo, we've talked about this ..and what do I always tell you? I wanna' wait till we're 50 and adopt creepy adult twins from Armenia ..!"  In another scene, Andy and April are giving Ben advice for a successful marriage. When Andy asks April what other thing she's always telling him, April replies: "Um, don't take it out till I scream!" Now, at the end of the reel, what do I remember?  In the first scene where they talk about having children ..I remember April saying: "Nooo, we've talked about this ..and what do I always tell you? 'Don't take it out till I scream'!" I put the dialogue from the other scene  here. It wasn't until I replayed the gag reel that I realized my mistake. Although my recollection didn't follow the actual order of events ..it still made sense and even retained some of it's humor.  Perhaps we remember pragmatic-sense better than chronological order.

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