Social Aspects of Memory

Abstract

No one doubts that memories are shaped by the social context in which they are formed or later remembered. In this essay we focus on how the social context of remembering and memorizing with others shapes the way both the speaker and listener remember the past, what we refer to as collaborative remembering. In addressing the mnemonic consequences of collaborative remembering, we discuss 1) how it shapes what is occurrently remembered in the group and 2) how it affects both what the speaker and listener subsequently remember. In terms of the former, we discuss the robust collaborative inhibition literature; in terms of the latter, we discuss the social contagion, retrieval induced‐forgetting and socially shared retrieval‐induced forgetting literature. In conclusion, we highlight areas in need of future research within the area of “social aspects of memory”: 1) whether the mnemonic effects of collaborative remember propagate across a group, that is, to move beyond dyadic interactions and examine larger groups; 2) examining the evolutionary advantages of human memory being susceptible to the influence of others; and, in turn, 3) how this mnemonic susceptibility may help foster social bonds.