The Consequences of False Memories
In recent years there have been a number of stories in the news revealing the sometimes devastating impact that false memories can have. False memories of crimes and sexual abuse can have serious consequences for the both the accuser and the accused, but most instances of false memories are less serious and happen with surprising frequency.
False Memories Can Impact Your Eating Habits
In one experiment on how false memories impact behavior, researchers created a false memory by suggesting that participants had become ill after eating egg salad as a child. Afterwards, the participants were presented with four different types of sandwiches, including an egg salad sandwich.
False Memories Complicate End of Life Decisions
False memories can also have an impact on the decisions people make at the end of their lives, such as the type of treatment they want, the kind of care they wish to have, and whether or not they want rescue interventions to be performed.
False Memories Can Have Life Altering and Even Fatal Consequences
In other instances, false memories have had a dramatic and disturbing impact on people's lives. For example, one Wisconsin woman sought help from a psychiatrist, who used a number of methods to help "uncover" repressed memories of traumatic events. Instead, these suggestive methods convinced the woman that she had been raped, in a cult, forced to eat babies, and that she had witnessed the murder of her best friend when she was a child. The woman later realized that the memories were false and had been implanted by her psychiatrist, resulting in a lawsuit and a $2.4 million dollar judgment in her favor