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it at 60. People often don’t detect you gave
them the wrong rating and they start to feel
less anxious about the task. When they look
back, it was less awful for them. You could do
this with kids when they go to the dentist.
A former student of mine did some research
with kids at a dental clinic, and she got them
to remember less fear and pain, and they
also behaved better at the next visit.
So there could be benefits to fallible memories?
If your kid has had a traumatic but minor
experience, rather than dwelling on the negatives,
it might be better instead to talk them up. To say:
“ People remember voting in
elections they didn’t vote in.
It makes them feel better”
“You were so brave, you hardly cried.” It is
generally a little easier to plant a positive
memory than a negative one. We don’t know
why, it just empirically seems to be the case.
Is there any evolutionary reason why
BRAD SWONETZ/REDUX/EYEVINE memory is so unreliable?
One benefit is that when errors creep in,
you can fix them and update memories
with true information. Another is that
some errors can make you feel better about
yourself. These are called prestige-enhancing
memory distortions. A common example is
event are different, the man’s version may What other memory problems has your people remember voting in elections they
not be the truth or, alternatively, maybe the research shed light on? didn’t vote in, because they like to think of
woman’s version is not the truth. We have We have been doing some work on a themselves as civic-minded. Sometimes it
to look for other sources of evidence to phenomenon called memory blindness. gets people into trouble, like in “stolen
corroborate either person. But right now, Say that someone is being interviewed after valour cases”, when someone famous says
at the height of “Me Too”, people are not as witnessing a crime. They tell you that person they were a brave soldier on the battlefield
interested in hearing you talk about false was wearing a green jacket. Later on you tell and it turns out they were really behind a
accusations as they might have been a year them they told you the jacket was brown. desk on that day.
ago. The pendulum has swung too far in the We are exploring the extent to which people
direction of automatically believing the even notice you fed back a different answer So most of the time it is a harmless delusion?
accuser. It used to be too far the other way. from the one they actually gave. Often they If these kinds of prestige-enhancing
don’t. We think this can be a problem in cases distortions aren’t caught, it does allow people
But we know most abuse cases are not where the police are writing out a statement. to feel better about themselves. People with
successfully brought to trial... They say “Here’s what you told me.” What if depression don’t have them as much as
I absolutely see what you’re saying. But as there are errors contained in it? It can happen. everyone else. Such people are sadder but
an expert witness on memory, I see a different We are showing that people can fail to detect wiser. This is just a correlation, so we don’t
subset of cases to the ones that most people them and be influenced by them. know if the lack of prestige-enhancing
see. I see the most contentious ones. I hate memory distortions is causing the depression.
the idea that people will try to point to all Can we misremember our feelings as well But it does suggest another possible upside to
the false memory work and use it to deny as facts? the unreliability of our memories. If there are
guilt when they’re truly guilty. I think that The evidence would suggest so. Another study costs, there have got to be some benefits. ■
probably sometimes happens and it’s just we are doing is we take you through a difficult
going to be a cost. I don’t know what we can task and ask you to rate your anxiety. I tell you Clare Wilson is medical news reporter at
do to stop that. that you rated it at 40 when really you rated New Scientist
27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 37
