It is easy for people to create false memories or memory illusions, like we experienced during our discussion this week. Many people included words in the lists that weren't actually said. It is amazing how our minds associate certain words, which causes us to believe that the words were actually in the list when they weren't. False memories can have a large affect on many situations throughout the world. An example of this was the case of Paul Ingram. He was led to believe that he had sexually abused his two daughters, when in reality he had never committed any crime. He merely believed that these events had occurred, because of people that he trusted providing him with all of this false information. People believed the girls even though there were many inconsistencies with their stories. The dates were constantly changing with each time that they were interviewed and there was no physical evidence of abuse on any of the girls. Paul even "confessed" to these crimes, but his stories of the events were not close to the accounts that the girls had given. The charges against Paul were eventually dropped two days after he pleaded guilty because the officials knew that he was having false memories.
This story of the Ingram family shows how false memories can truly affect people's lives. Many false memories consist of the mixing of multiple memories. For example, when recalling an accident that happened while driving home from work, someone might say that there was shattered glass covering the road. However, in reality, there might have been no shattered glass anywhere.
False memories occur all the time without notice. Did you ever think of how many false memories you've had that have lead you to stray from what had actually occurred in the past?
Here is a link to a story of a woman's experience with her own false memory:
My Lie: A True Story of False Memory