Posted on 02/16/2003 7:00:29 PM PST by 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.
And I could swear I took one of the Goodrich blimp. I've got it somewhere, I know I do. Now let's see.....
You guess right, CA. Liz Loftus accomplished that almost single-handedly some years back. The feminazis hate her, hate her, hate her.
L'enn's not the one you're looking for; let him pass.
Well if you have a comparably weird real life, I can understand the potential for confusion.
<)B^)
I used to own a white van, a Ford Econoline...in 1970....really.
It's the "Democrat Syndrome". Here are more:
Remember that middle class tax cut Clinton gave you in 1993 that he promised in the campaign?
Remember all those efforts to thwart terrorism after the 1993 WTC bombing?
Remember how those evil, far-right Christians tried to smear Bill Clinton with having sex with an intern?
Remember that silly "bureaucratic snafu" that found hundreds of raw FBI files jumping out of their cabinets and walking to the White House?
Remember the Republicans trying to spend the Social Security "trust fund"?
Remember when those evil Republicans threw your mother out of her home into the cold streets and starved your children at school by increasing spending on school lunches?
Remember all those "bands of marauding poor" rioting in the streets Patrick MoneyInHand told us would result if welfare reform passed?
Remember when Al Gore and Dick Gephardt were staunch pro-life candidates?
This is too fun!!!!
Wait a minute now...
LOL - yeah, and Bill Clinton's multiple trips to Harlem and the burning black churches...
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