Our whole life is a collection of memories that happened a moment ago.
Those memories are incredibly vulnerable and not only we ourselves can create errors within them,
but others can alter them just as easily.
The term misinformation effect refers to the errors in recalling the details of a past event,
due to the exposure to false information about the event.
In the real world, misinformation comes in many forms.
When talking about a topic or event, being questioned about it, or while watching videos or reading articles.
But also when reconstructing and updating original memory,
due to new information or influences of our own bias.
The first studies about the subject were made in the 70s and 80s,
in which scientists made people remember different items than originally seen,
such as a screwdriver instead of a hammer, a yield sign instead of a stop sign, or even remembered new items.
In the studies the participants were first shown the original item and in a survey afterwards confronted with the misinformation.
After the survey a significant amount remembered the misinformation instead of the original item.
Following and expanding the research, scientists have let people to believe that they had experienced fictional events in their distant and recent past,
some of these include being lost in a mall, having a hot air balloon ride,
meeting Bugs Bunny in Disney Land, being hospitalized, nearly drowned or attacked by a vicious animal.
Misinformation can make people falsely believe that they saw details or experienced events that were only suggested to them,
to the point at which they create rich false memories,
they express these false memories with confidence and describe them in vivid detail.
To create these false memories, the suggested event first needs to be plausible for the person.
Then, after being convinced of the personal participation the person can create false memories of the event.
One of the most known methods is the lost in the mall procedure, in which on average
over a quarter of the participants are led to believe, that they once went missing in
a shopping mall as a child and had been rescued by an elderly couple.
There are also studies that use doctored photographs, such as the hot air balloon study.
The participants are shown a doctored photograph of them and one of their parents in a hot air balloon.
While none of them can remembers the event, over two weeks, half of them create memories of the event
to the point where one quarter is describing the event in explicit detail, as if the event actually happened.
While those procedures focus on creating memory through misinformation,
there are also several methods that alter original memories.
Doctored photographs or videos of public events can alter memories shockingly easy.
A study in 2010 asked over 5000 people about political events.
They were shown four pictures, three true and one false.
While nearly everyone remembered at least 2 events, on average over 50 percent remembered the false event happening.
And after being told that one of the events is false, only 63% could identify it.
But doctored images also changed people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions.
In an Italian study, participants saw an altered picture of the 2003 protests against the Iraq war in Rome.
The participants were more likely to report, that it featured more physical confrontations,
damage to property, injured people and even casualties,
they also reported being less likely to participate in similar demonstrations in the future.
With millions of photos and videos being uploaded every day and the growing accessibility of editing tools,
doctored, manipulated and edited media gets harder and harder to identify.
And as doctored media of past events can already change our minds so easily,
doctored media of new events have the possibility to change the way we recall history.
By the time we would discover the mistake, if at all, the damage would have already been disastrous.
Warning people about misinformation sometimes helps them to resist but does not lessen the damaging effects.
Even US Navy personal, trained to withstand propaganda and misinformation, were not able to resist doctored pictures and videos.
And as false memories are saved and updated the same way as every other memory, they also persist at the same rate.
Which means, the brief exposure to misinformation can lead to a long term false memory.
It should be clear that misinformation can have huge effects,
not only changing ourselves, our memories, behaviors and personalities,
but also changing and creating events of vast political power, having global consequences.