An American social ecologist last month published the results of tests that proved, she said, how easy it is to implant false memories in people. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California at Irvine reported that in one experiment, subjects were shown advertisements featuring pictures of the cartoon character Bugs Bunny at Disneyland. Subsequently, more than a third of them said that they remembered having met Bugs on childhood visits to the theme park. Some even recalled touching his fur and what he had said (presumably "What's up, Doc?"). There was just one small problem. No one has ever met Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, because he is a Warner Brothers character and isn't even allowed on the grounds.
Psychologists, legal experts and, of course, the media, who know a good story when they see one, all were excited about this report. Of course, it bears directly on a controversy that has long dogged the relationship between science and the law -- that is, the debate over the reliability or otherwise of human memory. Dr. Loftus' experiment sheds fresh doubt on the trustworthiness of eyewitness testimony and also, more contentiously, on the phenomenon of so-called repressed memory, the process by which psychologists help victims "recover" memories of trauma or abuse. Over the years, she herself has testified on behalf of people accused of crimes ranging from murder to child abuse, saying their accusers' memories -- like anyone's -- were vulnerable to manipulation. Opponents say her work has helped many perpetrators, especially child molesters, escape conviction. Her latest research is certain to feed the controversy.
That's the way it is being discussed in the academic journals. But let's get serious about it for a few minutes. Do we really need a social ecologist (what is a social ecologist, anyway?) to tell us that memory is one of our most irrepressibly creative faculties? Isn't false memory a common everyday experience? Sometimes it seems as if the world is nothing but a vast conspiracy to tell us we saw something when we didn't, or vice versa.