The frog in the pot

You've probably heard the familiar anecdote of the frog in the boiling pot:

Throw a frog into scorching water, it'll leap out. But place it in a pot of cool water and slowly raise the temperature, it will cook alive.

Despite being a heartwarming metaphor for humans overlooking gradual change, the reality is different. A real frog will escape as the heat turns uncomfortable, whether sudden or gradual.

So let's leap to a different cognitive phenomenon: the peak-end effect.

Popularised by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Barbara Fredrickson, the peak-end effect shines a light on how our brains recall events.

Our memory, biased towards extremes and recency, captures the most intense moment (the peak) and the last moment (the end). These two points compose our memory snapshot.