Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
recall seeing a stop sign. When the deception is revealed, some
vehemently protest, stressing how vividly they remember the sign.
The greater the time lag between viewing the film and being given
the false information, the more people allow their memories to be
tampered with. Loftus argues that 'memories of an event more
closely resemble a story undergoing constant revision than a
packet of pristine information'.
There are many other examples, some - a spurious memory of
being lost as a child in a shopping mall, for instance - of greater
emotional impact. Once the key idea is suggested, the patient
often plausibly fleshes out the supporting details. Lucid but wholly
false recollections can easily be induced by a few cues and
questions, especially in the therapeutic setting. Memory can be
contaminated. False memories can be implanted even in minds
that do not consider themselves vulnerable and uncritical.
Stephen Ceci of Cornell University, Loftus and their colleagues
have found, unsurprisingly, that preschoolers are exceptionally
vulnerable to suggestion. The child who, when first asked, correctly
denies having caught his hand in a mousetrap later remembers
the event in vivid, self-generated detail. When more directly
told about 'some things that happened to you when you were
little', over time they easily enough assent to the implanted
memories. Professionals watching videotapes of the children can
do no better than chance in distinguishing false memories from
true ones. Is there any reason to think that adults are wholly
immune to the fallibilities exhibited by children?
President Ronald Reagan, who spent World War Two in
Hollywood, vividly described his own role in liberating Nazi
concentration camp victims. Living in the film world, he
apparently confused a movie he had seen with a reality he had
not. On many occasions in his Presidential campaigns, Mr
Reagan told an epic story of World War Two courage and
sacrifice, an inspiration for all of us. Only it never happened; it
was the plot of the movie A Wing and a Prayer - that made
quite an impression on me, too, when I saw it at age 9. Many
other instances of this sort can be found in Reagan's public
statements. It is not hard to imagine serious public dangers
emerging out of instances in which political, military, scientific