Were Things Really Better When Times Were Harder? The Science Behind an Age-Old Saying

This summer, I went on holiday in Italy, specifically, around Naples. I explored its hidden alleyways, surrounded by unmistakable urban scenery: washing hanging from one balcony to another across narrow streets, the smell of wood-fired pizza and fried street food, the taste of babà, and raised voices in animated conversation. Despite temperatures approaching 40°C in the shade, people seemed to find warmth and humour in the city’s everyday rhythm.

It was there, sitting in the shade during a break, that I happened to overhear a conversation in which one particular phrase kept coming up: “Si stava meglio quando si stava peggio” — literally, “Things were better when times were harder.”

Curious, I politely approached one of the speakers and asked, “Excuse me, would you mind telling me what you mean by that?”

The elderly gentleman explained that when he was a child, in the years following the Second World War, people did not have the economic opportunities or abundance that we enjoy today. Putting a meal on the table was a daily struggle, and traditional dishes were often made with simple and cheap ingredients (a reality that, sadly, many people around the world still experience today).

Even the famous Margherita pizza, he told me, has become almost a luxury for large families today, even in Naples itself, despite originally being created as an inexpensive meal that everyone could afford. “But life was better,” he said, “because we played outside in the streets, and happiness was found in the little things.”

In contrast, we are constantly bombarded with stimuli. We fill our days with countless activities, yet very few are undertaken simply for the pleasure of doing them. His words lingered in my mind.

When I returned home, I opened my laptop and started reading about the topic. What I discovered was fascinating: recent research has shown that narratives of decline are widespread across human societies and cultures [1]. Psychology offers several possible explanations for why people often remember the past as being warmer, simpler, or happier than it may have been. One is known as rosy retrospection, the tendency to remember past experiences more positively than we experienced them. Nostalgia can also strengthen this effect, helping people reconnect with meaningful memories, relationships, and a sense of belonging [2]. Another possible explanation concerns modern life. Constant exposure to information, notifications, choices, and competing demands contributes to mental fatigue. This does not mean that life was objectively better in the past. Poverty, disease, war, and physical hardship were very real. However, this may help explain why people sometimes feel that earlier times were emotionally richer: communities were often more visible, daily life involved more face-to-face interaction, and fewer digital distractions competed for attention [3].

In practical terms, life was undoubtedly more difficult in earlier generations and even more so in the distant past. People lacked many of the comforts we now take for granted, and obtaining food required considerable time and energy. Hunting animals and gathering wild plants could take hours. Once people returned to their shelters, they still had to light a fire and prepare their food before they could finally eat.

Today, supermarkets offer an extraordinary range of foods from every corner of the world, many of which are already prepared. Even something as simple as buying food can involve a whole series of modern challenges: driving to the supermarket, paying for fuel, dealing with traffic, finding a parking space, and, naturally, earning the money to pay for it all in the first place. Once we get home, there are groceries to unpack, meals to prepare, clothes to wash, bathrooms to clean, floors to mop, and carpets to vacuum. Our prehistoric ancestors did not have carpets in their caves [4]. Their lives were almost certainly harsher than ours in many ways. However, it is equally true that they were exposed to far fewer constant demands, distractions, and sources of stress that characterise modern life.

Perhaps, then, the saying “Si stava meglio quando si stava peggio” is not as irrational as it first sounds. It may not be a factual statement about history, but it captures something psychologically recognisable: our tendency to value connection, simplicity, and meaning, especially when modern life feels crowded with choices, tasks, and noise.

Therefore, let me leave you with a question:

Do you think things were better when times were harder?

By Laura Calabrese

References

[1] Hong, Z. The Cognitive Foundations of Decline Narratives in Human Societies. Hum Nat 36, 531–562 (2025).

[2] Adler, O., & Pansky, A. (2020). A "rosy view" of the past: Positive memory biases. In T. Aue & H. Okon-Singer (Eds.), Cognitive biases in health and psychiatric disorders: Neurophysiological foundations (pp. 139–171). Elsevier Academic Press.

[3] Ming-Yueh Hwang, Jon-Chao Hong, Kai-Hsin Tai, Jiun-Ting Chen, Timothy Gouldthorp, (2020). The relationship between the online social anxiety, perceived information overload and fatigue, and job engagement of civil servant LINE users. Government Information Quarterly.

[4] Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper.