The Fiction of Memory | Elizabeth Loftus

Summary

This talk delves into the fascinating yet unsettling nature of memory, emphasizing its importance in our lives. The speaker discusses the 'misinformation effect', demonstrating how easily memories can be distorted by false information. Through various studies, including the 'rich false memory paradigm', the speaker shows that it's possible to implant entirely false memories, affecting individuals' beliefs and behaviors. The talk concludes with a cautionary note on the impact of deep fakes and manipulated media on memory, underscoring the need for skepticism and verification.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Memory is crucial for daily life, guiding us through routine activities and holding our personal history.
• 🌟 The article 'The Grand Illusion' from New Scientist emphasizes memory's role in linking our present self to our past experiences.
• 🚫 The speaker warns of the fallibility of memory, suggesting we should be skeptical of our own recollections.
• 🔍 The 'misinformation paradigm' is a psychological method that demonstrates how post-event misleading information can alter memories.
• 👮‍♂️ Even trained soldiers can have their memories distorted by misinformation during aggressive interrogations.
• 🔧 The 'rich false memory paradigm' is a technique used to implant entirely false memories through suggestive interviews.
• 🔑 False memories can be emotionally compelling and neurologically indistinguishable from true memories.
• 🍽️ False memories can influence behavior, such as avoiding certain foods after recalling getting sick from them.
• 🔎 There's no foolproof method to differentiate between true and false memories, challenging assumptions about memory accuracy.
• ⚠️ The advent of deep fakes and doctored images/ videos poses a significant threat to the veracity of collective and individual memories.

Q & A

What is the primary function of memory according to the speaker?

Memory serves as a repository of our experiences, both happy and sad, and is essential for our daily activities, relationships, and identity.

What is the 'grand illusion' mentioned in the script?

The 'grand illusion' refers to the idea that memory is the only thing that links our present self to our past selves, forming the essence of who we are.

How can false memories be implanted, as discussed in the script?

False memories can be implanted through various methods such as the misinformation paradigm, guided imagination, dream interpretation, and hypnosis, which can lead people to believe and remember events that never actually occurred.

What is the misinformation paradigm described in the script?

The misinformation paradigm is a psychological study method where participants witness an event and later receive misleading information, which can distort their memory of the original event when tested.

Why are the findings on memory distortion significant according to the speaker?

The findings are significant because misinformation is prevalent in real life, and it can affect witness testimonies, personal beliefs, and even legal outcomes.

What is the rich false memory paradigm and how does it differ from the misinformation paradigm?

The rich false memory paradigm is a study method where no actual event occurs, but participants are given suggestive information about a past event that didn't happen. It differs from the misinformation paradigm by not relying on an initial real event to distort memories.

How successful are the methods in creating false memories, as per the studies mentioned?

The studies mentioned show varying success rates, with some methods leading to false memories in about 30% of participants, while others, like the crime memory, can reach up to 70%.

What are the potential ethical implications of the ability to create false memories?

The ethical implications include the misuse of memory manipulation for personal gain, the impact on legal proceedings, and the potential for altering personal identities and relationships.

How can false memories influence a person's behavior, as suggested in the script?

False memories can influence a person's behavior by affecting their later thoughts, intentions, and actions, such as avoiding certain foods or activities they falsely remember having negative experiences with.

What is the role of doctored photographs and deep fakes in memory manipulation according to the script?

Doctored photographs and deep fakes can play a significant role in memory manipulation by creating false visual evidence that can lead people to develop false memories and alter their attitudes and beliefs.

What is the key takeaway message from the speaker regarding memory and its authenticity?

The key takeaway is that confidence, detail, and emotion in a memory do not guarantee its authenticity; independent corroboration is necessary to distinguish between true and false memories.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 The Power and Illusion of Memory

The speaker begins by emphasizing the critical role of memory in our daily lives, linking it to our ability to perform routine tasks and recall personal experiences. They highlight memory's dual nature as a repository for both joyful and sorrowful events. The speaker then contrasts this with an article from 'New Scientist' that poetically describes memory as the link to our past selves. However, they introduce a paradox by suggesting that there are reasons to be skeptical of our own memories. The speaker proposes a thought experiment, questioning whether it's possible to implant false memories, such as rescuing a cat or being attacked by an animal, and discusses their decades-long research into memory, introducing the 'misinformation paradigm' which demonstrates how post-event information can significantly alter memories.

05:01

🔍 The Misinformation Effect and Memory Distortion

In this section, the speaker delves into the 'misinformation effect,' explaining how it can distort memories, even among trained soldiers. They recount a study conducted with soldiers undergoing survival school, where misinformation post-interrogation led to false identifications and memories of non-existent objects. The speaker illustrates the pervasiveness of misinformation in real-world settings, such as witness discussions, leading questions, and media influence, which can all contaminate memory. The narrative transitions to a more extreme form of memory distortion observed in psychotherapy, where patients develop false memories of severe abuse or satanic rituals, often induced by techniques like guided imagination and dream interpretation.

10:03

🌱 Planting False Memories: The Rich False Memory Paradigm

The speaker introduces the 'rich false memory paradigm,' a method developed to study the implantation of entirely false memories. They describe an experiment where participants were led to believe they had been lost in a shopping mall as children, an event that never occurred. The study successfully implanted this false memory in a significant portion of the subjects. The speaker mentions other researchers who have used this paradigm to implant even more bizarre false memories, such as near-drowning experiences or witnessing demonic possessions. They also reference a mega-analysis that found about 30% of people developed false memories and an additional 20-30% developed a false belief in the suggested events, underscoring the susceptibility of human memory.

15:04

🌐 The Impact of False Memories and Ethical Considerations

Here, the speaker discusses the impact of false memories on behavior, citing studies where false memories of food-related illnesses reduced participants' willingness to consume those foods. They also mention the potential for false memories to alter attitudes and intentions. The speaker raises ethical questions about the use of memory-altering technologies, pondering whether they should be used to improve happiness or health or be banned. They express concern about the manipulative potential of doctored photographs and deep fakes, which can create false memories and influence attitudes, as demonstrated in studies involving political figures and public events.

20:04

🔎 The Challenge of Distinguishing True from False Memories

In the final paragraph, the speaker addresses the difficulty of distinguishing true memories from false ones, referencing a public case involving Woody Allen and Dylan Farrow. They challenge the assumption that emotional intensity or confidence in a memory indicates its authenticity, citing research showing that false memories can be as emotionally charged as true ones. The speaker also discusses the limitations of brain imaging in differentiating true from false memories, as neural signals during recall show similarities regardless of a memory's validity. They conclude with a cautionary message about the reliability of memories, emphasizing the need for independent corroboration and reflecting on the potential of false memories to be equally compelling as real ones.

Keywords

💡Memory

Memory is the mental faculty of storing and retrieving information. In the video, memory is portrayed as a crucial aspect of identity and daily functioning, linking an individual's past experiences to their present self. The script discusses how memory can be manipulated or distorted, highlighting its fallibility and the potential for false memories to be implanted, as seen in the examples of the misinformation paradigm and the rich false memory paradigm.

💡Misinformation Paradigm

The Misinformation Paradigm refers to a psychological research method where subjects are exposed to misleading information after witnessing an event, which can alter their recollections. The video explains how this paradigm demonstrates the susceptibility of memory to distortion, especially when influenced by post-event information. For instance, the script mentions a study where people were led to remember seeing a 'yield' sign instead of a 'stop' sign after being asked leading questions.

💡False Memories

False memories are recollections of events or experiences that did not actually occur. The video delves into the concept of false memories, showing how they can be implanted through various techniques such as guided imagination, dream interpretation, and hypnosis. It emphasizes the ethical implications and the potential for false memories to affect behavior and beliefs, as illustrated by the studies where false memories of childhood events were successfully implanted in participants.

💡Guided Imagination

Guided imagination is a technique used in some therapeutic settings where individuals are encouraged to visualize events or experiences, sometimes leading to the creation of false memories. The video discusses how this technique, when used without caution, can lead patients to 'remember' traumatic events that never happened, as seen in cases where patients developed memories of satanic rituals or abuse during therapy.

💡Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a therapeutic technique that involves guiding a person into a trance-like state to achieve a heightened level of suggestibility. In the context of the video, hypnosis is mentioned as a method that can lead to significant memory distortion. The script alludes to cases where highly hypnotized individuals developed false memories, suggesting the powerful influence of hypnosis on memory formation.

💡Rich False Memory Paradigm

The Rich False Memory Paradigm is an experimental approach used to study the implantation of detailed, false memories. Unlike the Misinformation Paradigm, it involves creating memories for events that never occurred. The video describes how this paradigm was developed to understand the phenomenon of false memories that emerged from certain therapeutic practices, such as the false memories of childhood abuse that some patients reported after therapy.

💡Ethical Issues

Ethical issues in the video pertain to the moral implications of manipulating memories and the potential misuse of memory-altering techniques. The script raises questions about the responsibility of researchers and therapists when dealing with memory, especially considering the power to implant false memories and the consequences this may have on an individual's life, such as the impact on legal cases involving accusations of abuse.

💡Doctored Photographs

Doctored photographs are images that have been altered to deceive or mislead. The video discusses how such photographs can be used to create false memories, as people are more likely to 'remember' events if they believe they have seen photographic evidence. This is exemplified in the script by studies where participants developed false memories of public events after being shown manipulated images.

💡Deep Fakes

Deep fakes are synthetic media in which a person's likeness is superimposed onto someone else's body with the help of artificial intelligence. The video highlights the potential of deep fakes to manipulate memory and beliefs, as they can make it appear as if someone has said or done something they did not. The script mentions an example where a deep fake made it seem as if a public figure was saying something outrageous, which underscores the power of this technology to influence perceptions and memories.

💡Corroboration

Corroboration is the process of verifying the truth or accuracy of a statement by obtaining additional evidence or testimony. In the video, the importance of corroboration is emphasized for determining the authenticity of memories, especially in legal or therapeutic contexts. The script suggests that even detailed and emotionally charged memories may not be genuine and that independent verification is necessary to distinguish true memories from false ones.

Highlights

Memory is crucial for daily life and forms the essence of who we are.

The 'grand illusion' article emphasizes memory's role in linking our past and present selves.

Memory can be manipulated, raising questions about the reliability of our recollections.

The misinformation paradigm demonstrates how post-event information can alter memories.

Misleading questions can lead people to remember seeing things that weren't there, such as a yield sign instead of a stop sign.

Memory distortion can occur not just in lab settings but also in real-world stressful situations.

Soldiers' memories of survival school experiences can be distorted by misinformation about their interrogators.

Non-existent objects can be 'remembered' when misinformation is introduced post-event.

The misinformation effect shows how easily memories can be contaminated by new information.

Therapies involving guided imagination and dream interpretation can lead to the formation of false memories.

The rich false memory paradigm involves planting entirely false memories to study their impact.

False memories can be emotionally charged and felt as real as true memories.

Functional MRI shows similar brain activity when recalling true and false memories.

False memories can influence future behavior, such as avoiding certain foods.

Deep fakes and doctored photographs can manipulate memories and attitudes towards public events.

False memories can be planted and believed regardless of the quality of the manipulation, as shown by studies with doctored photos.

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the need for independent corroboration to verify the authenticity of memories.

False memories, like false jewels, can appear just as real and brilliant as true ones, highlighting the importance of critical evaluation.

Transcripts

and I really need to start by

acknowledging something that I think we

all can appreciate which is memory is

pretty important to all of us and so

without without memory you wouldn't know

how to leave your room of a hotel and

come down to get coffee in the morning

when you're at home you wouldn't know

how to find the car keys or how to make

the toast or how to catch the bus or

whatever you're planning to do memory is

that repository of many of the happy

things that that happen to us and also

the sad things that happen to us

well that's what I usually say about the

importance of memory and then I was

reading an article in the new scientists

from last October something called the

grand illusion and they talked about the

importance of memory so much more

eloquently and beautifully than I could

and you ought to imagine this being said

with a British accent like Richard

Dawkins but memory perhaps the only

thing that links the you sitting here

today to the many yous from every

previous day of your existence that's

memory without memory your relationships

would mean nothing not to mention your

knowledge tastes and your many

adventures it might be no exaggeration

to say your memories are the essence of

you but I'm here to tell you now that

there are fresh reasons and some not so

fresh ones reasons that I've been

working on and trying to communicate for

the last number of decades reasons not

to believe your own memories so let me

ask you this question do you think do

you think I could make you remember if

it did not happen could I make you

remember that when you were a kid you

saw a cat stuck in a tree and you

rescued that cat you did this kind of

little heroic thing as a child could I

make you remember that could I make you

remember you were attacked by a vicious

animal

if it had never happened to you could I

make you remember that as a teenager you

committed a crime and it was serious

enough that the police actually came to

investigate could I make you remember

that just last week you played a game

and you cheated in the game and you took

money out of the game bag when you

weren't entitled to do it

could I could I make you remember these

things could I pour these things into

your mind and make you remember these

things if they didn't happen and if I if

I talked to lay people who don't know

anything about this body of scientific

work they'd say no way I would remember

being attacked by a vicious animal if

that didn't happen or committing a crime

if I didn't do it but we'll see how you

feel about this in another 25 minutes or

so because I've been studying memory for

the for the last number of decades for

decades or more now and over the course

of my career I've developed a couple of

paradigms for for how to study memory so

one of them is now known in the

psychological literature in the

textbooks as the misinformation paradigm

and what what happens here is that

people see some kind of event it might

be a crime an accident later on they're

going to get some post event information

usually misleading information of some

sort

and then finally they'll be tested to

see what they remember about their

experience so we've shown thousands and

thousands of people simulated accidents

for a while over these years and in one

of the oldest studies that I published

we showed people an accident well it

where this little red car went through

an intersection with a stop sign and by

asking a leading question that

insinuates it was a yield son we got

lots and lots of people to

even remember they saw a yield sign

controlling the intersection not a stop

sign we've shown that we can get these

kinds of results not just with college

students who are participating in

psychological experiments in a

laboratory setting but when you go out

and you interview people out there in

the real world who for some reason are

undergoing some very stressful

experience you also can see this kind of

contamination from post-event

misinformation so in some studies that

I've done in collaboration with a

psychiatrist named Charles Morgan

we studied soldiers who are going to

survival school in our country we have

soldiers who are going through an

arduous regimen to learn what it's going

to be like for them if they are ever

captured as prisoners of war and as part

of this survival school they go through

a half hour aggressive hostile

interrogation it's a it's aggressive and

hostile it used to even involve

waterboarding although they're not doing

that anymore and by supplying these

trained soldiers with misinformation we

can distort their memory for what

happened during the survival school so

they might have been interrogated by the

guy on your left but by supplying

misinformation we get them to believe

and remember and identify the person on

your right somebody who doesn't even

remotely resemble the actual

interrogator the way we did it in this

study for example is to take these

soldiers at the end of their survival

school show them a photo remember this

guy who conducted that interrogation of

you that was so horrible did he let you

talk to anyone else did he give you a

blanket did he give you anything to eat

and the trick is this is a photo of a

completely different person and that's

all it took

for lots and lots of these trained

soldiers to later on miss identify the

person who had conducted that

interrogation

we also planted non-existent objects

into the minds of these trained soldiers

so there was no telephone in the room

there was no weapon on the interrogator

he was not wearing glasses and without

misinformation the soldiers rarely

claimed to have seen these objects but

for other soldiers if we fed the

misinformation about the existence of

these objects

now lots and lots of these soldiers said

they remembered seeing a telephone in

the room a significant minority

remembered seeing a weapon or glasses on

the interrogator so now I've shown you

some examples of something that's now

called the misinformation effect this is

kind of a cartoon drawing of that effect

you supply people with misinformation

you put them in what we call the mislead

condition and you depress their memory

performance and we think this is

important because out there in the real

world misinformation is everywhere so we

get misinformation when witnesses talk

to each other after some significant

event is over when they're interrogated

by an investigator who's got some agenda

and our hypothesis communicates that

hypothesis and influences the the

witness when people read news coverage

about an event they can pick up

misinformation all of these provide an

opportunity for new information to enter

a witness's memory and cause an

alteration a transformation a distortion

in that memory well it would be the

1990s when I would start to see an

altogether more extreme kind of a memory

problem we saw patients for example

going into psychotherapy maybe they had

an eating disorder they were depressed

they had some problem that brought them

to the therapy and they come out of this

therapy thinking that they were

traumatized that they were severely

abused either by fathers or relatives or

some other people in their childhood

some of them coming to believe and have

memories that they were molested in

satanic rituals that they were forced to

kill animals and breed babies and kill

those babies all these incredible things

that they thought they were remembering

and when I first started to be involved

in court cases where people were being

sued based on these very very big

memories and some of them so bizarre it

was natural to ask well where were these

bizarre memories coming from and

invariably there was some kind of

psychotherapy that went on some kind of

psychotherapy that seemed to involve

guided imagination for example oh you

don't remember abuse but you got an

eating disorder you're depressed why

don't you just close your eyes and

imagine who might have done this to you

I don't know daddy and how old might you

have been and where might it have

happened this kind of guided imagination

there was sexualized dream

interpretation going on oh I remember

you know you the therapist it's okay if

you talk about your dreams with your

therapist it's okay if you recognize

that day residue gets into the dreams at

night and if you're worrying about

something during the day you might find

it as dream material at night but the

problem with these therapists is they

take the dream material and they tell

the patients that this means something

happened to them in the past so the

patient dreams about a snake and the

therapist says that's a penis I guess I

could kind of see that but I had a

a case where the the pens in Seattle

Washington actually where the patient

dreamt about a cinnamon roll and the the

therapist said that was a penis and I

didn't quite get that one and that's why

cross-examination is so great because on

cross the therapist could be asked now

what was it that caused you to know that

when your patient dreamt about a

cinnamon roll that that was a penis and

the therapist said well it would clearly

the goo on the cinnamon roll and so I

know you'll never think about cinnamon

rolls and in quite the same way after

this there was hypnosis going on which

with highly hypnotized people can lead

to even more memory distortion and

sometimes I think I just hit a mutant

thing that I was told not to yes just

exposing people to false information

well whatever was going on I wanted to

study this phenomenon where we're how is

it you can drop a seed this imagination

there's a little dream interpretation

and out of this and the minds of these

people can grow something as big as

daddy forced me into satanic rituals and

made me kill animals the misinformation

paradigm that I had developed and had

used in my studies for decades it just

wasn't going to cut it because what was

going on here was something much bigger

and so we developed this new paradigm

called the rich false memory paradigm

where there is no event to begin with

but we ply people with suggestions about

the past and then we test them to see

what they do or don't remember and in

our first attempt to do this we planted

a false memory that when you were about

five or six years old you were lost in a

shopping mall you were frightened and

crying and ultimately rescued by an

elderly person reunited with the family

with three suggestive interviews we

succeeded with about a quarter of

ordinary

men and women other investigators came

along and planted even more bizarre or

upsetting rich false memories one group

planted a false memory you nearly

drowned and had to be rescued by a

lifeguard succeeding with about 1/3 of

their sample a Canadian group planted a

false memory that when you were a kid

you were attacked by a vicious animal or

you had a serious indoor or outdoor

accident succeeding with about half of

their sample with Italian collaborators

in a study we did in Italy we planted a

false memory that when you were a kid

you witnessed someone being demonically

possessed and a fairly recent study in

one of our top journals also out of

Canada when you were a teenager you

committed a crime and it was serious

enough that the police actually came to

investigate and they were so good that

they were getting reporting that getting

about 70% of ordinary adults to come to

believe and remember in this this

made-up story and my own students have

done the studies we're planning a false

memory that you saw cap stuck in a tree

and rescued it all kinds of rich false

memories how often does this happen

there's a mega analysis that was

published this is not a meta-analysis

but in the traditional sense but

something that these Canadian British

and US investigators came together they

took a large number of studies that had

attempted to plant these rich false

memories published this at the end of

2017 and they gathered information on

423 subjects who had gone through these

kinds of suggestive procedures using a

common coding scheme discovered that

about 30 percent of the time people

developed a false memory and an

additional 20

3% of the time people developed a false

belief that this had happened to them

even if they didn't have that sense of

recollection we think that's important

because just getting people to believe

that something happened to them is in

some sense the first step down that

royal road to developing a rich false

memory other investigators and we too

have used a variety of other techniques

often techniques that are modeled after

this suspicious psychotherapy that we

saw going on in many of these court

cases guided imagination or dream

interpretation hypnosis and so on these

can lead people to develop rich false

memories we've also shown that if I

plant a false memory in you it has

repercussions it can affect your later

thoughts your later intentions or later

behaviors so for example in some of our

work we planted a false memory that you

got sick eating a particular food

sometimes pickles sometimes eggs

sometimes strawberry ice cream and

people don't want to eat those foods as

much you can put these foods in front of

people in a picnic type setting and

people eat fewer of those foods after

they develop a false memory of having

gotten sick as a child and you can do

the opposite with people you can plan a

warm fuzzy memory which we did about

asparagus and people are more interested

in eating that healthy food and by the

way these things work not just on food

so we planted a false memory that is a

teenager you got sick on a vodka drink

this hasn't worked for me but for many

of the subjects people are less

interested in having a vodka drink so I

get asked lots of questions about this

phenomenon then the malleable memory and

the development of false memories and so

I know

what some of your questions are is there

any way for example to tell the

difference between a true memory and a

false one and I was reading my hometown

paper the LA Times and there was no

there had been an article about Woody

Allen and the fact that his daughter

Dylan Farrow had accused him of sexual

abuse when she back when she was 7 years

old when Woody Allen and Mia Farrow were

going through a terrible terrible

breakup and now the grown-up Dylan

Farrow is in the public eye again saying

you know in light of the me2 movement

maybe people will believe me now because

I was abused by Woody Allen even though

at the time there was a massive

investigation by Yale investigators and

no finding of any abuse whatsoever

well what caught my eye in the LA Times

was a letter to the editor and you can't

read that letter but I've blown up the

part I want you to read she says this a

therapist who has worked with many

sexual abuse victims I can recognize

when the stories are valid and Dylan

Farrow story rings very true so I'm

reading this thing I'm thinking what is

ringing for this lady

what is ringing that makes you know

because you see her on TV or you read a

quote from her in the newspaper

that her story is true when you know

nothing else maybe she's responding to

the emotion of the situation that so we

can ask our true memories more emotional

than false ones and in some work done by

one of my former graduate students her

dissertation work we showed that in fact

false memories can be held with exactly

as much emotion as true ones well how

about how about the brain and you know

it maybe if we could get some neural

signals when people are recounting

something that's false it would look

different than when they're recounting

something that's true

and so with a couple of scientists who

know a whole lot about functional

magnetic resonance imaging we put people

into a scanner while they're recounting

false memories or true memories and the

overwhelming result is the similarity in

the neural signals so we've got a number

of ethical issues that we can think

about because of this mind technology

and probably the the one that comes to

mind first is this when if ever should

we use this mind technology is it okay

to use it to allow people to live a

happier or healthier life or or should

we think about a banning its use when I

think about the future now of this line

of work here are just a couple of

thoughts it's kind of a scary future one

of the best ways to manipulate

somebody's memory is through doctored

photographs we showed this for example

in a study that we did in which we

showed subjects some photographs of

public events and asked people whether

they remembered seeing these events in

the in the public eye and to write about

what they did remember so do you

remember when our former president shook

the hand of the former President of Iran

number of people said yes how about this

do you remember when President Bush was

vacationing during Hurricane Katrina on

the bush ranch with the famous baseball

player Roger Clemens a lot of people

said yes and one of the things we found

back then is a lot of people said yes

but whether you said yes depended on

your political orientation so the

Republic conservative Republicans were

more likely to fall for the false story

that made Obama look bad and then the

reverse was true they were somewhat less

likely to fall

for the political story that made Bush

look bad

our most recent paper along these lines

it's kind of a scary one

published with my Irish colleagues just

a month or so ago a false memory study

conducted in the context of a referendum

on abortion in Ireland Ireland has one

of the most restrictive abortion laws in

the world at least it did until last

year when there was a referendum before

then women too basically had to go fly

to England or somewhere else to get an

abortion it wasn't going to happen in

Ireland but now with this referendum the

ban on abortion was list lifted um we

showed voters in Ireland some 3,000 of

them some true ads that appeared by

those pro-choice groups or the

anti-choice groups and then we made up

some fake advertisements and stories and

again I'm not going to walk you through

the data from our paper that was just

published but just to tell you like that

Obama and Bush study that had been done

before people were commonly thinking

that they remembered these fake stories

and they were more likely to develop a

false memory and accept and believe and

remember the fake story if it made their

opponent look bad this is kind of scary

it says something about fake news but in

conjunction with a recent paper

published just at the end of last year

by Rob Nash a British memory scientist

who happens also to be my academic

great-grandson he did this study he

showed some people a photograph of the

2011 wedding of Kate and Will's and here

you see them leaving in their car after

the after the wedding ceremony that's

the actual true photo for others he

showed them a doctored photo where there

were a lot of protesters and you know

agitation in the crowd and after showing

this doctored photograph subjects

remembered the event very differently

and had different attitudes about

whether they would want to participate

in how much what their feelings were

about the whole situation but the scary

part about Rob's work is in a third

condition he the doctored photographs

were such a rotten bad Photoshop job

that the horse's feet weren't even on

the ground and even with this thing that

was just screaming its fake people were

just as influenced by that in terms of

their memories and their attitudes now

things I'm even more scary now that I've

been learning about deep fakes and if

you know anything about this you know

that there is now computer technology

which can make it look like anyone is

saying or doing anything you want them

to say or do there was an online

demonstration of this where it looked

like Obama was saying something like

crazy but it was his voice it was his

accent it was his mannerisms but it was

actually a comedian who was speaking

through this computer technology making

it look like Obama was saying the things

that he wasn't really saying and the

article a great article on this had the

title fake media is coming for our

memories so I started this and now I'll

conclude could I make you remember could

I pour these things into your mind

making you remember that as a kid you

rescued a cat or you had an attack by a

vicious animal or you committed a crime

as a teenager or you cheated in a game

last week I didn't talk about that

excellent work from some other British

scientists all of these things have been

done in scientific work published

recently in the recent past that show

the power of planting these entirely

false memories in people's minds the

LeAnn mentioned the TED talk I gave a

few years ago and I was looking for some

way to leave a take-home message if I

wanted to leave you with one thought it

would be this that really just because

somebody tells you something with

confidence that they say it with a lot

of detail they cry when they tell you

the story it doesn't mean it really

happened you need independent

corroboration to know whether you're

dealing with an authentic memory or one

that's a product of some other process

and so you know I used to love this

quote from Salvador Dali he is the one

who once said the difference between

false memories and true ones is the same

as for jewels

it's always the false ones that look the

most real the most brilliant if I were

me to meet him today which he died so

probably not but I would say you know

Sal yeah you didn't quite get it right

it's not that they're false memories are

more real and more brilliant but that

the real lesson is they can be equally

real and equally brilliant thank you for

listening thank you thanks for watching

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