Most of us are fully confident that we accurately recall events from our past. They are our fondest memories, our greatest experiences, so of course we do. Well, think again. Researchers have found that our minds fail to successfully take in all of our surroundings when creating a memory, so it makes something up that makes sense in order to fill in the gaps.
They conducted an experiment where they planted a memory in a woman’s head, leading her to full heartedly believe that she had gotten lost in a mall as a child. When she retold the story she even made up a part where an older woman helped her. When the researchers told her that it was placed in her mind as an experiment, she had to call her parents to confirm that in fact that never took place. If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?
