# Human memory is terrible. Film at 11.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-memory-is-terrible-film-at-11/720118>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 15, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-memory-is-terrible-film-at-11/720118 "2015-05-15T16:51:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-memory-is-terrible-film-at-11/720118/1 "2015-05-15T16:51:24Z")

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[Witness Accounts in Midtown Hammer Attack Show the Power of False Memory](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/nyregion/witness-accounts-in-midtown-hammer-attack-show-the-power-of-false-memory.html)

Relevant quote:

> [@NY Times](#):
>
> A leading researcher in the field of witness memory, Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, said there was ample evidence that people found ways to plug holes in their recollections.
> 
> “If someone has gaps in their narrative, they can fill it in with lots of things,” she said. “Often they fill it with their own expectations, and certainly what they may hear from others.”
> 
> These are not the knowingly untrue or devious statements of people who are deliberately lying. False memories can be as persuasive as genuine ones, Dr. Loftus said: “When someone expresses it with detail and confidence and emotion, people are going to believe it.”

This is not new. Researchers have known that human memory is much poorer than people think for a long time. Especially during emotionally-charged or traumatic events like a police action or natural disaster or a battle.

Yet as a culture we still tend to take people’s word for it when it comes to eyewitness accounts of harrowing events that lasted only seconds. And these accounts are frequently terribly inaccurate. Most of the time the witnesses aren’t being deceptive; people just don’t realize that human memory is so limited and that their brain naturally wants to fill in the gaps.

Also, Midtown Hammer Attack is a good name for a band.

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**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-memory-is-terrible-film-at-11/720118/2 "2015-05-15T17:08:36Z")

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I read this in a book of advice, supposedly an “ancient Chinese proverb”: “The faintest ink is better than the sharpest memory.”