Case file
Declinism
- Filed under
- Not Enough Meaning
The charge
Declinism is seeing the past as better than it was and the future as likely worse than it will be.
How it operates
Memory smooths the past while current change is filtered through negativity bias.
Logged incidents
- Incident 01
Executives say customers are not loyal like they used to be despite stable retention.
- Incident 02
Voters believe the country is in permanent moral decline.
- Incident 03
Leaders dismiss younger workers as weaker than prior generations.
What to watch for
Ask: Do the long-run numbers support decline, or only my mood and anecdotes?
Recommended action
Compare long-run data using the same measures and time windows before declaring decline.
Known associates
- Telescoping EffectTelescoping effect is misremembering when past events happened, often pulling distant events closer and…
- Rosy RetrospectionRosy retrospection is remembering past experiences as better than they felt at the time.
- Hindsight BiasHindsight bias is the tendency to feel, after an outcome is known, that it was predictable all along.
- Outcome BiasOutcome bias is judging the quality of a decision mainly by its result instead of by the information and…
- Moral LuckMoral luck is judging people differently for similar choices because luck changed the eventual outcome.
- Impact BiasImpact bias is overestimating how intense and how long your future emotional reaction to an event will be.
Source of record