Why is it that horrific images remained burned into your memory but normal/wholesome images you forget over a much shorter period of time?

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Why is it that horrific images remained burned into your memory but normal/wholesome images you forget over a much shorter period of time?

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10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because your brain is hardwired to remember threats, because threats are useful in the future for keeping you alive.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I think trauma is the answer essentially. When you are tramatised you kind of mentally save a snapshot of the traumatic image/event and the surrounding circumstances so that if you survive you will always remember what it was that you need to avoid next time. I’m not sure why it applies to horrific shit you seen online, maybe our dumb brains havent firgured out how to separate whats real and whats on a screen yet?

Anonymous 0 Comments

Horrific images are more likely to elicit an emotional response (fear, disgust, anger, etc). Emotions make things much more memorable.

Your reaction is also related to your tolerance or sensitivity to that image. You can see pictures of adorable puppies and beautiful mountains all over the place, they’re nice but they’re also common enough that they can become meaningless. Gruesome pictures have more shock value because you probably don’t see them daily

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s a self defense mechanism. The subconscious part brain thinks, “Oh, this image caused my heartrate to spike and my breathing to get erratic. That probably means it was a threat to my safety. I had better keep it in the forefront of the memory banks to remind the conscious part of the brain to think up countermeasures so that it doesn’t hurt us if we see it again”

Even if it was something technically harmless like a picture of a war tragedy from a century ago, the subconscious doesn’t know that, it just reacts to the emotional distress.

Anonymous 0 Comments

For thousands of generations those who survived long enough to breed were those who could quickly identify, react to, avoid and remember threats.

What you classify as horrific is in essence a threat to your well-being. It’s in your design to be paranoid, shocked, fearful and disgusted.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A symptom of PTSD I have recently heard, but I haven’t researched yet. Trauma, ya know?

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because evolution-wise, remembering bad things is way more important to survival. You know how if you drink too much or get food poisoning, that drink or food can make you nauseous even years later? It’s because your body recognizes the poison and remembers so you avoid that thing in the future.

Well guess what you have the same protection built in for emotions and situations and people too. If you see or experience something horrible, you need a record burned in so you avoid it next time. If someone betrays you or something seriously hurts you or a loved one, you need a record to not trust the person, or to save yourself next time.

Our body systems (including brain and emotions) are finely crafted for 2 goals: Not dying, while having as much sex as possible. Remembering mundane things or a cute dog you saw isn’t going to help those goals. Remembering a pile of meat festering in an alley behind the butcher IS helpful, since you might not walk down that alley next time and avoid disease.

Anonymous 0 Comments

This is by no means an expert opinion, but I would say it’s because horrific images really challenge your perception of reality. They stick with you because it’s not the norm, and as humans we tend to be in auto pilot when experiencing normal things.

But I don’t think this is just reserved for horrific images. It can include anything outside of the bounds of your perceived reality. Felix Baumgartners jump is forever etched in mind, as I assume the moon landing is for some.

It’s just something that’s so far out of the realm of what we’re used to. I’m sure there are other factors, but that’s my 2 cents.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Not an answer to the question but I once saw a picture of a dick but instead of skin it had scales and the scales were fingernails and it will be with me at night as I try to sleep for the rest of my days.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They both degrade in your memory almost the moment after they take place.

It only seems like they are burned in because you don’t like them. As the details fade away, your brain attempts to rebuild the missing parts. Since you think of the memory in a bad manner and your brain has to reimagine the missing details, your brain creates them as horrific as you remember them being, sometimes resulting in a worse memory than the actual event.

This can sometimes even lead to people having “suppressed” childhood memories that didn’t even happen.

Example: I went the majority of my 30+ years remembering hitting my head on my parents old oak console TV. I had a huge hole in my head and there was blood everywhere. A couple years ago I was going through some old pictures with my mom and found the pictures of the injury but it was my little brother’s head. It was so scary (we were really young) that as time went on I imagined and “remembered” it as me.