The Stranger's Object You Remembered as Your Own

Name: The Stranger's Object You Remembered as Your Own
Genre: Documentary

Away from the social pressure, participants still repeat another person's invented detail as if it belonged to their own experience.

This episode needs All Access, from $4.99 a week.

Transcript

A stranger's invented object can return later as part of your own memory.
Researchers showed participants six household scenes: toolbox, bathroom, kitchen, and desk.
Afterward, answers included erroneous items from people supposedly before them.
A confederate introduced items that were not present in studied scenes.
Later, on individual testing, participants still reported items the confederate suggested.
Final test asked source: original scene, later suggestion, both, or neither.
Misinformation effect: later details reported as part of original event.
Some first recalled scenes for 12 minutes, others did arithmetic.
In experiment one, initial testing raised correct final recall from .29 to .34.
But initial testing did not significantly change false recall of the erroneous items.
Source recognition differed: tested participants blamed original scene less often.
2010, Fiona Broome coined “Mandela Effect” for collective false memory.
At Dragon Con, others thought Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s.
Each household-scene condition produced some incorrect final reports.
A remembered detail can survive as its original source grows harder to recognize.
Now watch that source confusion play out as a color shift.
Imagine a car that was originally green; misinformation later made it seem blue.

And in one famous test, that defense appeared to stop a green car from being remembered as blue.

All Access is $4.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $39.99 a year. The annual plan starts with three days free.

Renews until you cancel. Terms · Privacy