Professor Catherine Loveday, Professor on the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience BSc Honours course, was interviewed in an article published by The Telegraph about why we reminisce about youth.
The new BBC Three production ‘Normal People’, while aimed at those aged 25 and under, has gained viewing figures showing that two thirds of the 16 million requests to stream the series in the first week were from those aged 35 and over and many of the people watching it are actually reminiscing about their youth.
Professor Loveday said: “We romanticise that period, even though it’s often tricky and most people would not voluntarily go through it again, it’s when we form our identity. We make critical and lifelong decisions like what jobs we want to do, where we want to live, who we want to be friends with. You’re working out who you are away from your family, and deciding your views on politics, society and culture.”
She added: “When you ask people about memories from their life, those are the ones that come up most often. We revisit those experiences as a way of solidifying our sense of who we are.”
