The Power of Suggestion: How to Implant False Memories

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/14/Elizabeth_L...

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus discusses studying the power of suggestion, including implanting false memories in test subjects. After three suggestive interviews, Loftus found she was able to convince subjects they had been lost in a shopping mall as a small child.

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Elizabeth Loftus, psychologist and distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine, discusses the prevalence of false memories. She describes her own experiments in creating false memories, and explains how this impacts fields ranging from law to dieting. - Chautauqua Institution

Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, studies human memory. Her experiments reveal how memories can be changed by things that we are told. Facts, ideas, suggestions and other post-event information can modify our memories. The legal field, so reliant on memories, has been a significant application of the memory research. She is also interested in psychology and law, more generally.