Believing What We Remember ?

Posty · April 8, 2018

The following is an edited excerpt from my new book, Belief: What It Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling

Whatever you believe about the world and about yourself at this moment—without consulting books or the internet—comes from your memory. In a real sense, even your belief about who you are—your self-identity—is based on who you remember yourself to be. It is your memory that provides you with a sense of continuity in your life.

Until not so many years ago, experimental psychologists viewed memory simply as a very sophisticated recording process, and any errors were treated as defects in the process. A mountain of research now clearly contradicts that view. We now know that errors of memory are commonplace, not rare, and rather than being caused by defects, they reflect the fundamental character of the memory process. Memory is not some sort of cerebral video recorder that captures events around us as we experience them. As solid and reliable as most of our personal memories seem to be, memories are not direct and faithful records of our past. And sometimes, we can have “memories” of events that never occurred at all. To the extent that our memories are fallible, many of our beliefs are likewise vulnerable to error.

There are a number of influences that can distort or corrupt our memories and the beliefs associated with them:

Retroactive falsification.

When an event is recalled a number of times in succession, the details tend to become more consistent with one’s belief about the event. For example, suppose you describe a recent experience with a rude waiter. You recall that your partner had complained about the soup not being hot enough, and that you sarcastically suggested to the waiter that the chef should learn how to cook. The waiter then snarkily advised you to dine somewhere else next time. As you relate this account, your listener responds by suggesting that your sarcasm may have provoked the rude response, thereby challenging the “rude waiter” theme of your story. Now, the next time you tell the story, you may unwittingly or perhaps even deliberately reduce the likelihood of such a challenge by leaving out the bit about your sarcasm. Each new reconstruction influences the following one, and over several retellings, you may actually forget all about your sarcasm. This is retroactive falsification, and it can occur completely without awareness. It serves to maintain your belief, in this case that the waiter was spontaneously rude.

Misinformation effect.

The misinformation effect occurs when misleading information acquired subsequent to an experience leads to alterations in memory and belief about the experience. For example, in one study participants were presented with a series of photographs portraying a thief stealing a woman’s wallet and then putting it in his jacket pocket. Subsequently, the participants listened to a recording that described the series of photos, but the recording indicated that the thief had put the wallet into his pants pocket. A substantial proportion of the participants later recalled that the photographs had shown the thief putting the wallet into his pants pocket. The subsequent misinformation had become part of their memories, and their beliefs about what had occurred.

Imagination inflation.