PsychologyMemory
Researchers implanted a fake childhood memory in 1 in 4.
In the 1990s, psychologist Elizabeth Loftus gave adults four childhood stories collected from their relatives — except one, about being lost in a shopping mall, was invented. About a quarter of participants came to remember the fake event, some adding vivid details of their own.
Step by step
- Elizabeth Loftus gave adults four childhood stories gathered from their own families.
- One — being lost in a mall — was pure invention. About a quarter remembered it anyway.
- Some supplied extra details: the mall's layout, the kind stranger. It felt completely real.
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