The definition of false memories is a recollection that seems real in your mind but is fabricated in part or in whole. In this context it is shown that false memories can be harmless and essentially part of every day life. At some point in our lives everyone has had an experience with false memories. If you were asked to recall a family vacation you took to Florida 10 years ago, chances are there may be some discrepancies between you and your family members. The restaurant you ate at or what you were wearing that day may have changed due to the time gap or suggestions made by the person you are talking to.
False memories may not seem dangerous, but many people have been accused of crimes and even arrested due to false memories. A prime example of this would be the story of the Beatrix Six. When each of them were arrested for rape and murder of a woman named Helen Wilson, all of them insisted they were innocent and tried to defend themselves. The police and a consulting psychologist would keep insisting that they had repressed the memory and that it would come back through dreams or time. Due to all of the coercion by the police, three of the six people believed that they were guilty of committing this crime.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/06/six-people-were-convicted-murder-they-didnt-even-remember-now-county-owes-them-million/
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Hi Gabriel, great post! Last semester, I learned about false memories and the impact these kinds of memories have had on the criminal justice system. One of the cases we discussed in relation to false memories was the Beatrix Six. Many of us are so adamant that our memories are accurate but this case really goes to show how suggestible our memories can be, especially to outside sources. It makes me wonder how much of my memory is accurate.
ReplyDeleteHello Gabriel, false memory is definitely cause some people harm especially when it comes to rape and murder situations. Even memorizing steps in order of what you have done yesterday may be wrong due to the fact that our brain do not recall proactively than we think. Thats why some people tend not to believe rape victims when they wait couple months to years to tell what happened to them which is sad but sometimes a perfect memory of an event may be linked to tragic.
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