Suggestibility

A suggestion can supply a plausible detail, change what a question seems to presuppose, or blur the source of a memory: “Did I see that, hear it later, or infer it?” Confidence can rise with repetition even when accuracy does not. Effects vary with the person, delay, source credibility, and the detail being suggested.

• After seeing a minor collision, witnesses asked how fast the cars were going when they “smashed” are more likely to report higher speeds or later recall broken glass than witnesses asked a neutral question.
• A group discusses a meeting, and one confident person mentions a remark that was not made; later, several people remember the remark but cannot identify who first introduced it.
• A product claim repeated across ads begins to feel familiar, and familiarity is mistaken for evidence that the claimed feature was personally observed.

Laboratory misinformation findings do not supply a simple test for whether any individual memory is true or false. ‘Suggestibility’ also covers several mechanisms—social compliance, source-monitoring error, and genuine memory distortion—so broad claims, especially about recovered personal memories, require careful evidence and should not become automatic disbelief.