Crashing Memories and the Problem of ‘Source Monitoring’

Abstract

We demonstrate that it is relatively easy in a real life situation to make reasonably intelligent adults believe that they have witnessed something they actually have not seen themselves, but only heard reports about from others, and to make them report about particular details of the event. The event concerns the crashing of an El Al Boeing 747 on apartment buildings in Amsterdam. Over sixty per cent of the subjects said they had seen the crash on television, although no television film exists. Unexpectedly, women proved themselves significantly more vulnerable to this effect than men.