Why fake news thrives — people can’t trust their own memories: study

Here’s one reason why “fake news” may be prospering: The human brain can create completely believable memories of events that never actually happened, a new study reveals.

“People can develop false beliefs and memories about the

past, for instance, if they are led to believe that some fictitious event actually happened and they spend time repeatedly imagining that event,” study author Kimberly Wade of the University of Warwick told the Daily News.

In Wade’s “memory implantation” investigation, which used eight previously published false memory studies, researchers suggested fictitious events — a balloon ride, a prank played on a teacher, a ruckus at a wedding — to 400 subjects.

And more than half started believing the fabrications, with 23% accepting the suggested event to some degree and 30% going so far as to not merely accepting the suggested event, but also elaborating on it.

“People can come to believe and remember personal childhood experiences that never happened,” Wade told the News. “Ultimately, the person might struggle to distinguish between what they’ve imagined and what they’ve genuinely experienced.”

 

And nowadays, this could have disastrous implications in the media.

“The same process could apply to fake news in the media,” Wade said. “If people encounter the same misinformation over and over again, or glean misinformation from a credible source, they could believe in it and remember events that never happened. The same memory processes are at play.”

Since the mid-1990s memory implantation has become a hot field of study. And while we’re on the topic, one more thing. Don’t you remember that time I loaned you $100? It was that time we were on that balloon ride. You remember, right?