The (lack of) Living in History effect for the Velvet Revolution and the split of Czechoslovakia in Czech and Slovak samples

This study explores the Living in History effect in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.Czechoslovakia went through major political change during the collapse of the Soviet Union, followed by the split of Czechoslovakia.The study examined whether these two events have the potential to create a Living in History (LiH) effect.We asked participants to generate and date life events using the cue-card method and collected responses to the Transitional Impact Scale to examine the LiH and psychological and material impact of each event in participants from each country.We also interviewed participants and their adult offspring about participants' important life events and collected responses to the Identity Fusion Scale.We did not find the LiH effect for either of the events-it seems that these events do not have the characteristics of memory anchors that are necessary to create the LiH effect.