How easy is it to create false memories? A new study at the Weizmann Institute of Science shows that a little social pressure is enough to change a true memory into a false memory.
How easy is it to create false memories? A new study at the Weizmann Institute of Science shows that a little social pressure is enough to change a true memory into a false memory.
The study, which will be published on Friday in the scientific journal Science, reveals a unique pattern of brain activity that occurs when false memories are created - a discovery that hints at a surprising connection between our social self-identity and memory ("Man is the pattern of his memory landscape").
The experiment, done by Prof. Yadin Dodai And research student Micah Adelson from the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute, together with Prof. Raymond Dolan and Dr. Tali Sherut from University College London, included four stages. In the first stage, small groups of volunteers were assembled, who watched a documentary film. After three days, the volunteers returned to the lab and underwent a personal memory test, in which they were asked questions about the film. They were also asked to rate their level of confidence in the correctness of the answers they gave.
The volunteers were then asked to repeat the test, while inside a magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) device. This time, the volunteers received a "lifeline": the "answers" given by the other volunteers from the group, who watched the movie with them (these answers were displayed next to the volunteers' "profile pictures" - similar to the pictures that appear on social networks). Among these answers were implanted incorrect answers to questions that the volunteers answered correctly and with a high level of confidence in the first test. Planting the wrong answers made the participants fit in with the group, and in 70% of the cases they gave wrong answers.
Did the participants succumb to the social pressure only outwardly, and avoid giving the correct answer, or perhaps their memories did indeed undergo a real change? To answer this question, the volunteers were invited to the laboratory to repeat the test once more. This time they were told that the answers they received in the previous test were not given by their friends to watch the movie, but were randomly generated by the computer. As a result, in some of the questions the volunteers returned to their original, correct answer, but almost half of the answers remained incorrect - indicating that the false memories implanted in the previous test remained in their minds.
In the analysis of the data obtained from the fMRI scans, a unique brain activity was discovered during the creation of false memories following social pressure. The creation of these false memories was characterized by the simultaneous activation, with strong connectivity, of two areas of the brain: the hippocampus and the amygdala. The hippocampus is known to play an important role in creating long-term memories, while the amygdala, known as the "emotional center of the brain," plays a role in social interactions. The scientists believe that the amygdala functions as a kind of "bridge", which connects the parts of the brain related to social relationships, to the parts related to storing memories. It is possible that for certain types of memories, the "approval" of the amygdala is required before they are stored. Therefore, social pressure may act on the amygdala and convince our brain to replace a well-embedded memory with a false one.
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The double light (12 and 13):
1. I assume that no basic information in psychology talks about the amygdala and the hippocampus.
2. I have a feeling that personal rivalries from the institute find Betoyen on the site.
What's new? This is just an additional confirmation of basic information in psychology. It was possible to expect the result even without the "experiment". What does it contribute to a person? What is it useful for medicine?? chatter
What's new? This is just an additional confirmation of basic information in psychology. It was possible to expect the result even without the "experiment". What does it contribute to a person? What is it useful for medicine?? chatter
Take for example those who sit in prisons
He only said that it is only reasonable to assume that a high level of intelligence affects one's submission to social pressure. Maybe yes and maybe not.
I think you can certainly find different behavior as a function of IQ, but it is even more possible that there are many other factors. Like social pressure from whom? Is it a beautiful woman you are trying to impress? Maybe it's just annoying talkback and then it's maybe less important. Maybe some people just don't have patience. Maybe someone more educated would have noticed that he was being deceived and would not have perceived it as social pressure but as an experiment. For sure maybe.
Gillian, that's not true. Shame (=social fear) does not depend on intelligence.
If it was something of principle for that person, then it is possible that the principle would have prevailed over the shame.
But just things that happen, usually it's not about principled things and that's where social pressure wins.
This is not necessarily social pressure, but an additional confirmation of the well-known fact that the reconstruction of the memory occurs during the recalling of it, partly through the information available to the recaller at that moment.
There was once a similar experiment in which two groups watched a video of a car accident and then were asked various questions related to it (how fast were the cars going, how much damage was caused to them, etc.). All the questions were the same except for one difference in wording: group A was asked about the "collision" and group B about the "crash". Surprisingly, it turned out that this small change was enough to drastically change the evaluations of the subjects - the group asked about the crash remembered the accident as much more powerful than the group asked about the collision.
The experiment here seems to describe a similar effect. It is also not clear (at least from the description here) whether this is indeed "social pressure" or just misleading information, did the subjects think that their wrong answers would be shown to their friends?
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Gillian
I don't think we will only test the herd effect here, but rather the insecurity of the subject.
But the experiment you proposed is interesting and mainly because the results may be surprising. It doesn't seem to me that the phenomenon of change will appear only in the weak strata. It seems to me that this phenomenon of lack of confidence in yourself appears at all levels
Good Day
Sabdarmish Yehuda
It's a shame that the correlation between the personality types and IQ of the subjects and the submission to social pressure was not tested. It is likely that people with a high IQ, for example, will not succumb to social pressure under any circumstances and that this is a phenomenon that characterizes weak to average layers of the population, or in other words: the herd effect.
Amazing experiment. And very important.
Is it possible that the amygdala, which is also responsible (if I remember correctly) for fear, makes sure that when there is a conflict between the actual memory and "society's memory requirements" it causes fear (social pressure, not just pressure, there is an element of fear) and as a result of the fear the memory actually changes .
Isn't this the basis of this whole concept called "society". Everything is shaped through the same fear.
That is, this small-scale experiment actually presents and demonstrates the processes underlying the creation of human societies.
simply incredible.
Despite this article, and many other articles before it that present the memory as a system that easily changes and responds to whims,
It should be recognized that the memory is mostly solid and lasts a long time, and those who want to test this, should think about their professional memory, without which it is impossible to work.
Read again so you might understand
good week
Sabdarmish Yehuda
I don't understand how it is possible for you to start with I don't understand, continue with giving facts that are not related to the article and end with giving a scathing ruling. Hint: You really don't understand.
I don't understand why they had to be told that the social pressure was false. Even without it, they should have put it in for testing and see what changed. There is an experiment here that will be of great interest to advertising companies!
For example
Ask passengers on public transport if the reform is good
Then show a group of people praising the reform
and in the end check if the passengers have changed their minds
There is no point at the end of presenting the group of people who praise the reform, to say that it is false
I don't know of an advertising company that would behave like this, so the statement about lies or randomness is unnecessary
Good Day
Sabdarmish Yehuda