Writer Barbara Kingsolver said earlier that "memory is a complicated thing, a relative of the truth, but not its twin." This was the study of cognitive sciences when she made this statement. Researchers agree with the writer, claiming that memories can be manipulated with an incredible ease.
According to Curiosity, in the 1990s, many therapists believed that traumatic experiences could produce repressed memories, which would only surface through therapy. However, some people began to realize that experiences in memories were impossible, suing the therapists for malpractice.
At the same time, Elizabeth Loftus, a Stanford University professor, began to voice her mind against this method, noting that the method had no scientific basis and that in fact, psychologists planted these fake memories in patient memory.
Loftus has led studies that have shown how easy it is for a therapist to plant false experiences. She, together with her team, created texts containing two stories from the childhood of the participant as they were told by a relative, plus a false story about how the participants lost in the mall at the age of five.
For the first time, participants were asked to write how much they remember from each event, or if they remembered something. Then they were interviewed to reprint the events. Nearly one-third of the participants claimed they remembered the fake event after reading it, and a quarter were able to replicate it in subsequent interviews.
Other researchers have had similar results. A Western Washington University scholarship study revealed that 20% of the students who attended "have a mind of a party" and 18% "remembered" when they spilled Drink the bride at her wedding.
According to Loftus, false memories are the easiest to create when there are three factors:
- there is a pressure to remember the experience
- there is encouragement to imagine what happened
- the opposition in case of doubting the truth of the experience.
All of these factors are present in important situations, such as interrogation in the case of a crime or psychological treatment.