Ep. 31 Why We Cringe at Our Former Selves
Old photos. Old posts. That one opinion you had with total confidence in 2019. Why does looking back at past-you feel almost physically unbearable? This episode gets into the real psychology of cringing at your former self — temporal self-appraisal theory, the neuroscience of vicarious embarrassment, and why nostalgia and cringe turn out to be two settings on the exact same dial. Genuinely a little unsettling, and kind of a compliment once you see the mechanism.
This week we're getting into why looking backward at yourself can feel almost physically unbearable — and why, weirdly, that feeling…
The skinny
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