Lasting Impressions.

INTRODUCTION

This week, I'm looking at the peak-end rule: how it shapes the way we remember everything from holidays to medical procedures to workdays, and what it means for anyone designing experiences for other people.

Think about the last holiday you went on. If we met in passing, how would you answer the question "how were the holidays?"

You'd probably reference one or two vivid moments, a view, a meal, something that stands out. And without realising it, how the holiday ended has already shaped your entire memory of it, for better or worse. Automatically, we don't bring up small random details, because we often forget them. You wouldn't bring up the airport transfer or the mediocre lunch or the hour you spent looking for parking.

It's not because you don't remember but more because your memory didn't record the full experience. It took two snapshots. The most intense moment and the final moment. This forms into what is called the peak end rule, and it leads to us summarising experiences into two main moments.

3 IDEAS FROM ME

1. Your memory is a highlight reel, not a documentary. Daniel Kahneman's research showed something uncomfortable: we don't remember experiences as they actually were. We remember the peak, the moment of highest emotional intensity, and the end. Everything else fades. In one famous study, patients who endured a longer, more painful medical procedure actually remembered it more favourably than patients who had a shorter one, because the longer version ended on a less painful note. More total pain, better memory. That's how powerful the ending is.

2. Most experiences are poorly designed because we optimise for the average, not the moments. Chip and Dan Heath illustrate this brilliantly in The Power of Moments, using Disney World as an example. If you tracked your happiness hour by hour during a day at Disney, the average would be surprisingly mediocre: queuing in 35-degree heat, overpriced food, tired children. But weeks later, you'd rate the day a 9 out of 10. Why? Because Space Mountain was a 10, and the mouse-ear hats on the way out were an 8. The peak and the end did all the heavy lifting. The same happens in sport. Once a team wins or loses, that dictates the memory of it. The Heaths argue that most businesses and most professionals make the mistake of trying to raise the average of an experience, eliminating small frustrations, smoothing things out. But what actually drives how people feel about an experience is whether you created a peak moment and whether you stuck the landing.

3. You can engineer defining moments. They don't have to happen by accident. The Heaths identify four elements that make moments memorable: elevation (it rises above the everyday), insight (it changes how you see something), pride (it captures achievement), and connection (it deepens a relationship). You don't need all four. You need one, delivered with intensity. A hotel in Los Angeles called the Magic Castle became one of the highest-rated hotels in the city despite having dated rooms and basic furnishings. How? They installed a poolside phone, a "Popsicle Hotline." You pick it up, and minutes later a waiter in white gloves delivers popsicles on a silver tray. One moment. Total cost: almost nothing. But it became the thing every guest remembered and told their friends about.

2 QUOTES

1. "We feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they're not." - Chip and Dan Heath

This gets at why peak moments work. They break the script. They interrupt the expected pattern. Comfort is forgettable. Surprise is memorable. If you want someone to remember an experience, a presentation, a first day at work, a patient consultation, you have to disrupt their expectations at least once.

2. "In recalling an experience, we ignore most of what happened and focus instead on a few particular moments." - Daniel Kahneman

This is both liberating and worrying. Liberating because it means you don't have to make every moment perfect, you just have to get two moments right. Worrying because if you get those two moments wrong, everything else can seem inconsequential.

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

Think about an experience you have coming up, a meeting, a presentation, a customer interaction, even a family day out. Where could you create the peak? And how will you make sure it ends well?

Try designing for those two moments and see what happens.

PS. I'm relaunching this newsletter with a slightly evolved focus. Still performance psychology, still the 3-2-1 format but casting a wider net across the psychology of how we think, decide, and perform. Same depth, broader lens. If you've been here since the beginning, thank you for the support.