You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.

Do You Really Remember Where You Were When JFK Was Shot?

Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Pretty much all Americans over the age of 50 will reminisce this week about where they were when JFK was shot. They might remember in vivid detail and tell their stories convincingly—but, even if they have extraordinarily good memories, they might be wrong.

A study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that even individuals who can recall details from nearly every day of their lives since mid-childhood, thanks to an unusual condition called “highly superior autobiographical memory” (HSAM), can be convinced that distorted or even completely false memories are true. The researchers recruited 20 people with HSAM and 38 with normal memories, and gave them a series of tests designed to measure their susceptibility to believing implanted memories. In one test, for instance, participants were asked whether they had seen the “well-publicized footage” of United Flight 93 crashing in Pennsylvania on September 11. (No such footage exists.) Twetny-nine percent of subjects with normal memories and 20 percent of those with HSAM reported that they had. In another test, after being shown a list of related words, 70 percent of people in both the control group and the HSAM group wrongly believed they had seen a different (though similar) word.

This study adds support to the growing literature suggesting memories can be manipulated and even planted. This summer, neuroscientists at MIT succeeded in planting false memories in mice. And researchers have found that although Americans typically sound confident when they recall where they were and what they were doing on the morning of September 11, they remember fewer details with less consistency as time passes.

Logo

Independent journalism matters

×

Ads help fund our journalism. Please disable your ad blocker so that we can continue striving to be the most influential magazine in Washington, D.C., with our breaking news coverage, in-depth political features, and much more.

Continue without disabling

Choose your Ad Blocker

  • Adblock Plus
  • Adblock
  • Adguard
  • Ad Remover
  • Brave
  • Ghostery
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlock
  • UltraBlock
  • Other
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock Plus icon
  2. Click the large blue toggle for this website
  3. Click refresh
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock icon
  2. Under "Pause on this site" click "Always"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Adguard icon
  2. Click on the large green toggle for this website
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ad Remover icon
  2. Click "Disable on This Website"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the orange lion icon
  2. Click the toggle on the top right, shifting from "Up" to "Down"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ghostery icon
  2. Click the "Anti-Tracking" shield so it says "Off"
  3. Click the "Ad-Blocking" stop sign so it says "Off"
  4. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock Origin icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the UltraBlock icon
  2. Check the "Disable UltraBlock" checkbox
  1. Please disable your Ad Blocker
  2. Disable any DNS blocking tools such as AdGuardDNS or NextDNS

If the prompt is still appearing, please disable any tools or services you are using that block internet ads (e.g. DNS Servers).