Researchers Find It's Easy to Plant False Memories in Minds of Some People

The Associated Press ^ | Feb 16, 2003 | Joseph B. Verrengia

[new cruelty]

DENVER (AP) - Remember that wonderful day when Bugs Bunny hugged you at Disneyland? A study presented Sunday shows just how easy it can be to induce false memories in the minds of some people. More than a third of subjects in the study recalled that theme-park moment - impossible because Bugs is not a Disney character - after a researcher planted the false memory.

Other research, of people who believed they were abducted by space aliens, shows that even false memories can be as intensely felt as those of real-life victims of war and other violence.

The research demonstrates that police interrogators and people investigating sexual-abuse allegations must be careful not to plant suggestions into their subjects, said University of California-Irvine psychologist Elizabeth Loftus. She presented preliminary results of recent false memory experiments Sunday at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Loftus said some people may be so suggestible that they could be convinced they were responsible for crimes they didn't commit. In interviews, "much of what goes on - unwittingly - is contamination," she said.

The news media's power of suggestion also can leave a false impression, Loftus said.

"During the Washington sniper attacks, everyone reported seeing a white van," she said. "Where did it come from? The whole country was seeing white vans."

A key, researchers said, is to add elements of touch, taste, sound and smell to the story.

In the Bugs Bunny study, Loftus talked with subjects about their childhoods and asked not only whether they saw someone dressed up as the character, but also whether they hugged his furry body and stroked his velvety ears. In subsequent interviews, 36 percent of the subjects recalled the cartoon rabbit.

In another study, Loftus suggested frog-kissing incidents that 15 percent of the group later recalled.

"It is sensory details that people use to distinguish their memories," said Loftus, who has conducted false memories experiments on 20,000 subjects over 25 years. "If you imbue the story with them, you'll disrupt this memory process. It's almost a recipe to get people to remember things that aren't true."

In other research presented Sunday, Harvard University psychologist Richard McNally tested 10 people who said they had been abducted, physically examined and sexually molested by space aliens.

Researchers tape-recorded the subjects talking about their memories. When the recordings were played back later, the purported abductees perspired and their heart rates jumped.

McNally said three of the 10 subjects showed physical reactions "at least as great" as people suffering post traumatic stress disorder from war, crime, rape and other violent incidents.

"This underscores the power of emotional belief," McNally said.

[new cruelty]

Gore still remembers winning in 2000.

[L`enn]

The best thing I can get out of this article, is there are way more nuts and freaks loose in the world than even my cynical mind thought possible.

[Bogey78O]

That explains "I Rigoberta Menchu"....

[Cicero]

These are the people who voted twice for clinton because they remembered what a great guy he was.

[Bogey78O]

Hehe...just tried this on my mom...

She swore up and down she remembers taking a pic of Tweety Bird in front of the castle.

[new cruelty]

there are way more nuts and freaks loose in the world than even my cynical mind thought possible.

hehe, nah, you just seem to remember it being that way.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Remember that wonderful day when Bugs Bunny hugged you at Disneyland?

It was really Michael Jackson.

[CyberAnt]

I guess this totally destroys the "suppressed memory" theory.

[new cruelty]

lol, thats just mean.

[ffusco]

Sound like a simple Jedi mind trick to me.... Do you have that fifty bucks I lent you?

[Bogey78O]

Oh..almost forgot. I'll send the check tomorrow.

[ffusco]

"The whole country was seeing white vans."

I have Never seen a white van.

[TankerKC]

That explains "I Rigoberta Menchu"....

But it still doesn't explain the mass of liberal believers. ;)

[ffusco]

LOL

[First_Salute]

Camelot.

[Bogey78O]

Oddly enough even with Alzeimer's setting in Reagan's still more in touch with reality than, oh let's say Donahue, for example.

[Cicero]

Almost all of these scandals began during the clinton years. They are characteristic of left-wing yuppie behavior. The Bernie Schwartz type, who think nothing of selling out to Communist China if it will raise money that can be given to the DNC to guarantee re-election of a pro-abort president.

The children of the 60s grew up believing the marxist line that business is totally corrupt, but many of them also wanted to make money and live the good life. So, they went into business and, sure enough, they were totally corrupt.

The previous generation, famously portrayed in "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit," believed that there were certain rules and obligations. All that went by the boards among the people who swallowed the countercultural message.

[ffusco]

Obi Wan Kenobi: ( to Stormtroopers) These are not the droids you are looking for. We can move along.

Storm Trooper: (to 2nd Stormtrooper) These are not the droids we are looking for. move along!

[new cruelty]

That reminds me of Richard Harris. Thanks.

[jimkress]

What's new about this? Clinton had new (false) memories every day. Remember his 'walking tour through Harlem' when he was at Oxford?