Pluto Behaving Badly: False Beliefs and Their Consequences

Abstract

We exposed college students to suggestive materials in order to lead them to believe that, as children, they had a negative experience at Disneyland involving the Pluto character. A sizable minority of subjects developed a false belief or memory that Pluto had uncomfortably licked their ear. Suggestions about a positive experience with Pluto led to even greater acceptance of a lovable ear-licking episode. False beliefs and memories had repercussions; those seduced by the bad suggestions were not willing to pay as much for a Pluto souvenir. These findings are among the first to demonstrate that false beliefs can have repercussions for people, meaning that they can influence their later thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.

Creating Memories for False Autobiographical Events in Childhood: A Systematic Review

“…Typically ‘Believers’ reported an increase on the autobiographical belief scale that ranged from 1 to 2 points, remaining below the scale midpoint, for an event at a theme park (Berkowitz, Laney, Morris, Garry, & Loftus, 2008) to 3–5 points, increasing beyond the scale midpoint, for food‐related events (D. M. Bernstein et al, 2005a, 2005b; Laney et al, 2008; Laney et al, 2008; Scoboria, Mazzoni, Jarry, & Bernstein, 2012). In some cases, belief ratings recorded by ‘Believers’ after false feedback were as high as 6.48 on the 8‐point scale (Laney et al, 2008).…”

“…Of the studies identifying a subset of ‘Believers’, the proportion endorsing a ‘memory’ as opposed to a ‘belief’ fell between 0% and 20% in studies suggesting the participant had been ill after eating something (D. M. Bernstein et al, 2005a, 2005b) or had had a specific experience at a theme park (Berkowitz et al, 2008). This proportion reached 40% in a study suggesting being sick after drinking alcohol (Clifasefi et al, 2013) and 20–50% in studies involving like or dislike of asparagus (Laney et al, 2008; Laney et al, 2008).…”

“…However, the false feedback research has also involved memory for events prior to age 3 years (Mazzoni & Loftus, 1998; Mazzoni et al, 1999), memory for interactions at Disneyland (Berkowitz et al, 2008) and memory for bone screening (Scoboria et al, 2007). Thus, although for many of the studies, it is difficult to rule out some contribution from actual experience, the range of events studied makes this implausible as an explanation for all the effects obtained.…”

The consequences of suggesting false childhood food events

“…Research has shown that merely suggesting to people that they experienced a particular event in the past, for example, that they had become ill after eating spoiled peach yogurt, can directly affect how much peach yogurt they consume currently (Scoboria, Mazzoni, & Jarry, 2008). However, other studies have shown that the consequences surrounding suggested food-related events are stronger in those who come to believe the suggestion than in those who do not believe the suggestion (e.g., Berkowitz, Laney, Morris, Garry, & Loftus, 2008). Thus, it is unclear whether suggestions directly affect suggestion-related attitudes and behaviors or whether belief in the suggested events drives changes in suggestionrelated attitudes and behaviors.…”

History of Forensic Interviewing

“…Other false memory implantation techniques are simpler, designed to give large numbers of subjects false memories quickly (Berkowitz, Laney, Morris, Garry, & Loftus, 2008;Bernstein, Laney, Morris, & Loftus, 2005;Laney, Morris, Bernstein, Wakefield, & Loftus, 2008). An important goal of this research is to root out differences between true and false memories that could be useful to forensic interviewers and other actors in the legal system.…”