People do not remember experiences as averages. They remember how they felt at the most intense moment and at the end. The Peak-End Rule was established through research by Daniel Kahneman and colleagues, including a 1993 study with Barbara Fredrickson where participants rated the discomfort of two variants of a cold pressor task. The second variant was objectively worse (it included all of the first variant plus additional discomfort), but participants preferred it because it ended more gradually. The ending overrode the objective total of discomfort in memory. This finding has been replicated across medical procedures, customer service interactions, and product experiences.
Peak-End Rule
Why the end of an experience shapes how users remember all of it
A
Designers Academy
19 November 2025 · 5 min read
DesignPrinciples
In brief
The Peak-End Rule states that people remember experiences based on their most intense moment (the peak) and their final moments (the end), rather than the average quality of the entire experience.
