Here is a TED talk^ below you will find I have summarized the talk and spoke about my own personal reaction to this. Lately I have been watching TED talks for my psychology class and I’m finding them very insightful and interesting.
False memory is a psychological phenomenon where a person remembers or recalls something that did not actually happen. This is apparent in a TED talk with Elizabeth Loftus, who has spent her life studying how people remember information. Elizabeth Loftus discusses her case with a client named Steve Titus, who was thirty one years old. Ms. Loftus had to defend Steve Titus because one night he was pulled over and convicted after having dinner with his fiance. Steve and his fiance were pulled over because his car (and Steve himself)resembled that of a man who raped a female hitchhiker. Steve was arrested and was brought in for questioning and to take photos of him. The victim was asked to identify the offender from a group of men. Consequently, she and pointed out Steve and said that he was the closest looking man to the rapist. Once the trial began in the courtroom, the victim said that she was “absolutely positive” that he was the man who did it. When the trial was over, he was convicted and taken to jail. After something as unjustifiable and unfair as this, Steve made phone calls and caught the attention of an investigative journalist who worked with his case. The journalist was actually able to find the true rapist, leaving Steve clearly innocent. Once he was set free, he had no job, money, or fiance anymore, and he was left feeling very bitter and discouraged. Steve decided to file a lawsuit against the people he felt were responsible for his suffering. Days before his day in court, he woke up, and died of a stress-related heart attack. It is obvious in a case like this, how false memory can lead to extremely negative impacts on other people.
Ms. Loftus goes on to explain how our memories are constructive, and are constantly changing. Through her own research and testing, she has conducted experiments to see how people remember details after watching certain simulations. For example, she showed a car accident and asked the people how fast the cars were going when they “hit” each other. She showed the group to another set of people and asked them how fast they were going when they “smashed” into each other. Evidently, when she used the word “smashed” the witnesses, said a higher number and thought the cars were going faster. Moreover, the people who were asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed, even went as far to say as they saw broken glass, when there was none at all. This depicts how during questioning, in a trial or another context, that certain responses can be elicited based on very specific forms of questioning.
After watching this TED talk I started to think about how detrimental false memories can be, especially in a court case of some kind. The woman who claimed that Steve Titus was the man was raped her, was clearly wrong. However, I took a step back for a moment to think about her decision in doing that. After finding out that Titus was not the man, it would be very plausible to assume she feels guilty and responsible to some extent. But, you have to take into consideration that she was raped, and was understandably and most likely very upset, frazzled and not herself. You also have to take into account that because she was just raped, it would be very comforting for her to know, (or think she knows), that the rapist was incarcerated. We also as human beings, are always naturally always looking for an answer, so it is understandable that she would pick someone, and think she knows, and base it off of a false memory. I think that it is possible that with more questioning and more research that they would have ended up finding that Steve Titus was actually innocent all long. I would say it is possible that they also like “finding” the criminal, and are quick to incarcerate people. Lastly. The fact that Steve Titus contacted an investigative journalist (who is not a cop, detective, ect), and that person was able to find the real person who raped the victim, is shocking. Knowing that an investigative journalist was able to find a serial rapist, and the legal system was not, and misidentified someone without further research, is not very reassuring. It personally makes me very weary of their process, because this is definitely not the first or last time something like this has happened. Hopefully in the future, as technology develops more and more, these things will happen less. I definitely see the effects of false memory in a different perspective now, and how it plays a prominent role in many circumstances.