The Peak-End Effect: Harness the Power of Endings

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "When" by Daniel H. Pink. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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What is the peak-end effect? Why do endings feel so significant?

The peak-end effect is the psychological tendency to remember and put a greater emotional weight on the ending of an experience. While endings may feel disproportionately more significant, they can distort our perception of the experience as a whole.

Keep reading to learn about the peak-end effect and how you can harness it to your advantage.

The Power of Endings

The “peak-end effect,” proposed by psychologists Daniel Kahneman (author of Thinking, Fast and Slow) and Barbara Frederickson, explains that when people remember something, they imbue the greatest meaning to the “peak” of the experience and to the end of it.

Pink argues that the end of something, whether that be a period of time or an experience, can impact our life in four ways.

First, endings disproportionately shape our memory of an experience. How an experience ends often determines how we remember it.

(Shortform note: Part of why endings matter is because they force us to reflect more deeply on ourselves. Endings provide an opportunity to look back on an experience to see how it fits into our life narrative and has formed our sense of self. For example, when people retire, they often have to adjust to a new identity that doesn’t revolve primarily around work. Endings, whether chosen or not, give us the opportunity to develop greater self-understanding.)

While the disproportionate power of endings can solidify the memory of an experience, it can also distort our perception. An experience that’s overwhelmingly positive but ends poorly is more likely to be remembered negatively than a mediocre experience that ends on a high note. For example, if a family vacation ends in a heated argument, you’re more likely to remember that vacation in a negative light, even if the rest of the holiday was wonderful.

Awareness of the disproportionate power of endings can help ensure that when you reflect back on an experience, you think about it holistically, and avoid putting too much weight on the ending without taking the rest of the experience into consideration.

Do Endings Really Change Our Memory of Them?

A 2016 study published by the American Psychological Association challenged the commonly accepted “end effect,” finding that endings don’t have a disproportionate impact on how people remembered experiences, unless the ending itself has special meaning, or people are led to believe that they should evaluate the experience based on its chronological structure.

Also, the peak-end rule only holds true for periods of short duration. According to Chip and Dan Heath, authors of The Power of Moments, endings tend to lose their importance when looking back on long-term experiences. Endings and beginnings begin to blur. For example, graduating college and starting your first job is both an ending and a beginning. Therefore, when looking back over a long period of time we tend to focus more on significant transitions than endings.

Second, endings can motivate us to take action. The end of a time period or an experience, whether literal or symbolic, often inspires people to take action or set goals to accomplish. Consider the flurry of activity that happens as a school or work deadline approaches. With the end in sight, we’re suddenly more motivated to get things done. For example, as the end of the year approaches, charitable giving increases dramatically. About 31% of total giving for the year happens in December, with 12% of giving occurring in the last three days.

You can take advantage of the motivating power of endings by setting deadlines for yourself or using the end of a year or a decade as a natural time to finally get started on that big aspirational goal you’ve been putting off.

(Shortform note: While people are more likely to set aspirational goals at the end of a decade, people are less likely to set goals as they age—a 2022 Gallup poll found that 79% of people aged 18-34 were likely to set goals for 2023 compared with only 62% of those 55 and older. However, goal-setting can be particularly helpful for older adults. Whether the goal is about getting more exercise, writing letters to friends, or taking an art class, goals provide a sense of independent purpose and control as people age.)

Third, endings help us determine what really matters. As people approach the end of an experience, or more poignantly, the end of their life, they become increasingly focused on what’s most important to them. For example, psychologists have found that as people approach the end of life, their social network shrinks. They have fewer acquaintances or casual friends but a more stable inner circle of their closest friends and family. This theory of “socioemotional selectivity” explains that as people age, they become more selective about how and with whom they spend their time.

Knowing that endings naturally cause you to be more selective about how and with whom you spend your time can give you permission to become more intentional about how you spend time—guilt-free.

(Shortform note: In Being Mortal, Atul Gawande explains that people nearing the end of their lives are able to focus on what’s important because they have a present-oriented outlook, becoming increasingly focused on close relationships, treasured memories, and simple pleasures. However, this can present a challenge when the people caring for them (family members or medical professionals) have a more future-oriented outlook. To provide a better end-of-life experience, caregivers and medical professionals need to align their care with their patients’ present-oriented goals, even if this means accommodating the choice to forgo medical treatment.)

Finally, endings often hold greater emotional weight. People tend to cherish experiences more when they know the experiences are ending. For example, in addition to narrowing their social circle, people facing the end of their life deeply value their physical comfort. While many people may have taken their comfort for granted in their earlier years, simple things become more valuable when we recognize we might lose them soon.

(Shortform note: To heighten the experience of endings, share the experience with someone else. Researchers have found that shared experiences, regardless of who we share them with, are more intense. Experiencing something with another person, even without speaking, can sharpen your focus and increase your awareness of what you’re sensing and perceiving, giving it an extra emotional boost.)

But Pink also goes on to explain that the most meaningful endings are in fact bittersweet. For example, consider the beloved ending of the classic film Casablanca when (spoiler alert) Rick helps Ilsa, the woman he loves, escape Casablanca with her husband, knowing that it means the end of their relationship. Other endings, like graduations, the end of summer camp, or the marriage of a child, precipitate a similarly complex range of emotions. The “poignancy” of endings, according to Pink, lies in this complexity—a happiness that’s often tinged with sadness.

You can take advantage of the poignancy of endings by embracing the mix of emotions that come with them. Even though we might think we want a happy ending, Pink reminds us that happy endings are rarely the most meaningful.

(Shortform note: Endings, while meaningful, can also be tinged with regret. To ensure that you can look back on endings without regret, research suggests trying to establish closure when you come to the end of an experience. Whether an ending is inevitable, like a graduation, or unexpected, like being fired from a job, researchers recommend trying to tie up loose ends before the opportunity is lost to prevent regret. Establishing closure might mean taking the time to say thank you to a close mentor or being honest about challenges in an exit interview.)

The Peak-End Effect: Harness the Power of Endings