The Misinformation Effect [JAPANESE SPEECH] NARRATOR: Hold on, hold on. Have you done this before? [CAMERA SHUTTER] What about this? [CAMERA SHUTTER] It's only human to want to capture memories. [CAMERA SHUTTER] But that doesn't mean that's how our memory actually works. In fact, there's more than one kind of memory. When we talk about memories of events, we're talking about episodic memory. We create episodic memories by encoding sensory information from the world into our brains. These become memory traces, which are stored until they are retrieved-- a fancy word for remembering. However, you don't remember things exactly as they were. Memory is constructed. Each time you remember a memory, you're actually rebuilding it using those memory traces and your own guesswork. That's why psychologist Elizabeth Loftus compares memory to a Wikipedia page. You can edit it, but that means other people can too. And they're not always right. [EVIL LAUGHTER] When a memory is sorted by wrong information before it's retrieved, this is known as the misinformation effect. Literally hundreds of studies have shown the misinformation effect. In one study, Loftus and her colleagues showed people slides of car accident. Then they asked the participants questions about the scene. Some were given a question with misleading information that mentioned a yield instead of a stop sign, while some saw a question with consistent information. Later, those who were misinformed were about 20% more likely to incorrectly report that they saw a yield sign compared to those who received the correct information. Taken to the extreme, misinformation can send an innocent person to jail. You wouldn't want to be in a police lineup with a misinformed eyewitness. Eyewitness memory is easily distorted if there are suggestive police procedures, for example, if a police officer intentionally implies that the crook is in the lineup. When witnesses talk to each other, they also share information that might not be true. Despite this, many jurors and judges are convinced that eyewitness evidence is the most persuasive kind of evidence out there. This has serious consequences. Out of the 314 prisoners who have since been proven innocent, almost 3 out of 4 were mistakenly identified by an eyewitness. Although no one is immune to the misinformation effect, young children and the elderly are the most prone to it. In addition, the effects are strongest after a long period of time when the memory trace becomes so weak that we rely almost entirely on external information to reconstruct the memory. So go ahead and take a picture. It'll last longer, and it'll be more accurate. Well, mostly.