For all the sway they hold within the country and abroad while in office, most American presidents fade out of the nation’s collective memory within a period of 50 to 100 years, says a study on presidential name recall.
The study, however, suggests that Barack Obama might well be remembered a lot better because he represents “a unique first in American history” as having been the country’s first African-American President.
Hillary Clinton, if elected in 2016, would also have the potential to be much better remembered than her husband, Bill Clinton. For her election as America’s first woman president would be another unique development.
The study, conducted by psychology researchers at Washington University in St. louis, compares results from the presidential-recall tests given to three generations of undergraduate college students (1974, 1991 and 2009) and a similar test offered online to 577 adults ages 18-69 in 2014.
In each test, participants were provided a numbered list with blank spaces and asked to fill in the names of all presidents they could remember in the order in which they served. Harry l. Roediger, co-author, says the study has been able to “uncover how Americans forget presidents from our historical or popular memory over time”.
“Findings showed several consistent patterns in how we have forgotten past presidents and offer a formula to predict the rate at which current presidents are likely to be forgotten by future generations,” the researchers said, noting.
Harry S Truman, lyndon B Johnson and Gerald R Ford are among the 20th Century presidents fading fast from historical memory, whereas John F Kennedy has been better retained. One explanation may be that Kennedy’s assassination while in office made him memorable, but then two earlier presidents who had also been assassinated — James Garfield and William McKinley — are remembered relatively poorly.