How we remember our past can be shaped by the realities of our present. This study examines how changes to present circumstances influence retrospective reports of family income rank at age 16. While retrospective survey data can be used to assess the long-term effects of childhood conditions, present-day circumstances may “anchor” memories, causing shifts in how individuals recall and report past experiences. Using panel data from the 2006–2014 General Social Surveys (8,602 observations from 2,883 individuals in the United States), we analyze how changes in objective and subjective indicators of current social status—income, financial satisfaction, and perceived income relative to others—are associated with changes in reports of childhood income rank, and how this varies by sex and race/ethnicity. Fixed-effects models reveal no significant association between changes in income and in childhood income rank. However, changes in subjective measures of social status show contrasting effects, as increases in current financial satisfaction are associated with decreases in childhood income rank, but increases in current perceived relative income are associated with increases in childhood income rank. We argue these opposing effects follow from theories of anchoring in recall bias. We further find these effects are stronger among males but are consistent across racial/ethnic groups. This demographic heterogeneity suggests that recall bias is not evenly distributed across the population and has important implications for how different groups perceive their own pasts. Our findings further highlight the malleability of retrospective perceptions and their sensitivity to current social conditions, offering methodological insights into survey reliability and recall bias.

Is the RADLab a good fit for my career goals? Our lab is very research oriented. Our primary goal is to train doctoral students to make outstanding, substantive, and meaningful contributions to the sc...

Guest post by Jennifer L. Tackett Northwestern University; Personality Across Development Lab The PiaD approach was borne of a d...

The ASDN is an information exchange and action network for individuals and organizations devoted to studying, treating and preventing problems caused by psychoactive substance use, including alcohol, ...

Books Sage Handbook of Addiction Psychology Dynamic Pathways to Recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder Mindfulness Harm Reduction, 2nd Edition Therapists Guide to Evidence-Based Relapse Prevention Neur…

This cross-sectional study estimates the proportion of US adults with lifetime suicide attempts whose first attempt occurred without or preceded the diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder.

University of Sheffield experts say promotion of the Drink Less app could save the NHS £500m.

Objective: Social environment is a key determinant of substance use, but cannabis-related social network analysis is not common, in part because of the assessment burden of comprehensive egocentric social network analysis. Method: The current pre-registered secondary analysis assessed the psychometric properties (i.e., convergent, criterion-related, incremental validity) of the Brief Cannabis Social Density Assessment (B-CaSDA) in a cross-sectional sample of adults who use cannabis (N = 310) using a survey-based design. The B-CaSDA assesses the quantity and frequency of cannabis use for the respondent's four closest (nonparent) relationships. Results: Ego cannabis use severity was elevated for each additional person who used cannabis at all or daily in the individual's social network. B-CaSDA indices (i.e., frequency, quantity, total score) were positively correlated with cannabis consumption, cannabis use severity indicators, and established risk factors for harmful cannabis use. B-CaSDA indices also discriminated between those above and below a clinical cutoff on the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test–Revised (CUDIT-R). Finally, in omnibus models that included common risk factors for cannabis use severity, the B-CaSDA quantity index contributed additional variance when predicting CUDIT-R total score, and B-CaSDA frequency contributed additional variance in predicting the CUDIT-R quantity–frequency subscale. Conclusions: The results suggest that the B-CaSDA has the potential to expand social network research on cannabis use and misuse by increasing its assessment feasibility in diverse designs.

These tips for sober socializing may not have you dancing on tables, but they’ll help you have plenty of fun.

Brief summary of our new paper on the personal-internal reification of p-factor causes with Merlijn Olthof and Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff