The Mysteries of Memory: Common Fallacies We All Experience

I was talking with my sister about a dress I wore at one of our aunt's weddings. She insisted the dress was red, while I remembered it differently ( the wedding was before the "optical illusion" social media dress). This conversation got me thinking about how else our memories are misleading us. We all know our memory can be distorted in many ways, thanks to true crime shows and podcasts. Here are some common memory fallacies anybody can experience:

Imagination Inflation (1) is when thinking about something that didn't happen can make you believe it did. In 2015, NBC News anchor Brian Williams claimed he was in a helicopter hit by an RPG during the Iraq War in 2003. In reality, he was in a following aircraft that arrived an hour after the attack. Over 12 years of retellings, Williams had come to believe his story. He later apologized, saying, "I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another."

Hunger for Narrative (2) is our intrinsic desire to understand and interpret the world through stories. This can lead us to prefer narratives that simplify complex situations. For instance, we might lean towards simplified good vs. bad narratives in news stories rather than consider the nuances and multiple perspectives involved.

Curse of Knowledge (3) is our cognitive bias where we, knowing something, assume others have the same level of understanding. When my sister taught me how to drive, she was shocked that I did not become an expert driver in two days. She forgot how challenging it was when she first learned.

False Dilemma (4) is the belief that there are only two options in a situation, forcing a black-and-white approach. My aunt thought that if her children did not go to college, they would end up homeless. She did not even consider that they could be entrepreneurs like my cousin (spoiler alert: my cousin is not homeless and is very successful without a college degree).

Social Contagion of Memory (5) happens when discussing an event with someone else alters and influences your memory of the same event. This is exactly what happened in our dress debate. My sister and I both believed the dress was a different color and tried to convince each other until we confirmed through old photos.

There are many more! Which of these memory fallacies have you experienced? Are there other fallacies you notice people falling for? What are the implications of these memory fallacies?

About the dress? We both were wrong; the dress was purple.

Until Next Time…

References:

1. Garry, M., Manning, C. G., Loftus, E. F., & Sherman, S. J. (1996). Imagination inflation: Imagining a childhood event inflates confidence that it occurred. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(2), 208-214. Link to study
2. Bruner, J. (1991). The Narrative Construction of Reality. Critical Inquiry.
3. Camerer, C., Loewenstein, G., & Weber, M. (1989). The Curse of Knowledge in Economic Settings: An Experimental Analysis. Journal of Political Economy
4. Tavris, C., & Aronson, E. (2007). Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.
5. Gabbert, F., Memon, A., & Allan, K. (2003). Memory Conformity: Disentangling the Steps toward Influence during a Discussion. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.