False memories- what are they?
Have you ever considered that what you’re recalling is true or just a fabricated version of an event?
Everyone cherishes memories. We tend to recall events that are associated with emotions. This is because they have a sentimental value in our lives. Memories are not like a recording, and they are constructive by you and other people. False memories are either completely different from what happened or a fabricated memory of a specific event. They may contain specific details that are entirely inaccurate and events that occurred but are distorted or fabricated.
False memories can be anything, from remembering that you locked your car when you didn’t or that you got abducted as a child. (They really can be as simple and as complex).
False memories can be caused by urgency. For example, when you try to recall an event in haste, you might go with the first thing you come across in your mind, which might not be accurate. Another cause can be misattribution when you get confused between two similar events and remember the details of one event with another. Finally, false memories can also be created by placing events connected deeply with emotions; however, the details of these events might not always be correct.
But one of the main reasons for false memories is misinformation. When you are spoon-fed with wrong information about something, you can believe it to be true. Researchers have found that when people are subjected to wrong information about a particular event, they often interpret it as their actual memories, giving birth to false memories which they perceive to be confirmed. This might happen due to repeated exposure to misinformation. When misinformation is provided after a long time, people are more likely to perceive it as accurate.
False memories can have life-long effects on the decision-making of people. People tend to feel a certain way about things according to their memories about specific things. For example, in a research, a false memory was planted in people’s minds that they got sick eating particular foods such as strawberry ice cream, dill pickles or hard-boiled eggs. It was observed that the people avoided those foods later.
A planted memory in mind can either be good or bad; it was conducted in the same research that when a positive memory was planted relating to foods such as asparagus, people tend to eat the specific foods more, in this case, asparagus. Therefore, people can change their behaviours, decision-making process, and eating habits if subjected to wrong information.
False memories can have drastic effects on people’s lives. For example, a woman in Wisconsin was assisted by her psychiatrist to “uncover” several different traumatic events such as being raped, being forced into a cult, had been forced to eat babies and to witness the murder of her best friend when she was only a child.
False memories are more common than you think. Research shows that false eyewitness statements cause around 71% of wrongful convictions. As a result, hundreds of people in the US are wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Many children die in hot cars, being forgotten by their parents. Why do you think this happens? Because parents are sadist criminals who long to see babies suffer? Not at all. These are effects of false memories of the parents. The parents might remember that they dropped off the baby somewhere when in reality, they did not like in the case of Balfour.
False memories can be caused in everyone. We are all subject to misinformation. However, one major factor influencing false memories is the age factor. For example, if a person experiences the death of a neighbour when he is 20 years old, you can most likely convince the same person who is now 95-year old that the person who died was not his neighbour only but his best friend. When misinformation about an event is provided to a person about something that happened years ago, he is most likely to take that misinformation and perceive it as an accurate memory, obviously not applicable in all cases.
The memories are not always reliable, no matter how sentimental they are. We all are subject to misinformation every day. For example, who’s to say that the bruise you have on your knee is not the result of a bicycle accident, but a mere fight with your classmate 15 years ago?
After all, “Memory, like liberty, is a fragile thing.”
