False Memory Syndrome

[Deleted]

I always had some sort of interest in science and how the brain works.

But this is the most interesting thing ive ever encountered:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory_syndrome

TLDR:

50% of the human population, believes in something that never occurred for them. It can be everything, but most likely something traumatic. It can also be something more positive. It can be something like you got chased by a dog and that's why you are afraid of dogs to like you been a professional hockey player(when you have never played hockey before - this was a case in one of the studies for a person).

It's about that you tell a story over and over until you believe it and the memory becomes yours. The thing here is what makes you tell yourself a lie to start of with.

Just felt like sharing

[Puupi]

Many politicians suffer from this awful disease.

[Felya]

It's very easy to explain, as I have noticed my self doing it. Some of the stories my parents tell of me before 8 y/o are things that seem like memories, but if I really think about it, I only "remember" what people tell me. I never introduce any new items to the story, but the memory matches what others tell me happened. As memory fades, the distinction of you remembering and you remembering what someone else said, gets muddled the same way all memories do.

[Kryos]

Great example how fast you can put a false memory in someone's mind.

[Piglord]

What always gets me are movie scenes. Remembering in detail scenes of a movie that never happened.

[Shadowferal]

Great example how fast you can put a false memory in someone's mind.

Called "gaslighting."
Term originated from an old black/white movie. (Ingrid Bergman was hot)

It's actually a bit of psychological abuse.

[zenkai]

Many politicians suffer from this awful disease.

I was thinking the same thing.

[Darsithis]

Anyone else thinking of the Berenstein vs Berenstain bears?

[zenkai]

I was thinking more of Brian Williams

http://www.businessinsider.com/brian...ncident-2015-2

[Dezerte]

I'm also fascinated by the human brain, and I feel like optical illusions are the best example of how to highlight just how wonky our brains really are. It doesn't even matter if you know that it's an illusion, your brain will still see the illusion as real and fall for it every time.

What I'd really like for people to takeaway from this is to never trust your brain, because it's an expert at manipulating you - it's had millions of years of evolution and your whole lifespan to figure out how best to "control" you.

[McFuu]

Anyone else thinking of the Berenstein vs Berenstain bears?

No this is actually proof we live in an alt dimension to which we grew up in. There is absolutely no one who can convince me that it isn't Berenstein.

[GennGreymane]

Anyone else thinking of the Berenstein vs Berenstain bears?

alternate universe confirmed

[Darsithis]

What I'd really like for people to takeaway from this is to never trust your brain, because it's an expert at manipulating you - it's had millions of years of evolution and your whole lifespan to figure out how best to "control" you.

Most of which is necessary. Our ability to find faces in everything is part of our unconscious skill to gauge possible threat from facial expressions. We can "see" our body parts in the dark because our mind already knows they exist, we don't need to literally see them to know they're there. Our minds purposely filter out repeat information (thus fueling a lot of movement-based optical illusions) to ensure that what we see looks smooth and complete; otherwise we'd see a large amount of noise and stuttering.

Unfortunately that also makes our brain prey to a lot of tricks: false memories, optical illusions, phantom limb syndrome, etc.

[ItachiZaku]

I like to run the same conversations or similar conversations in my head with someone and eventually, it feels like I've actually had that conversation and therefore never need to actually have that conversation.

[Deleted]

Great example how fast you can put a false memory in someone's mind.

A guy whose "dream present" is a leather jacket can most likely be easily manipulated.

[Azadina]

A guy whose "dream present" is a leather jacket can most likely be easily manipulated.

As if good leather jackets were cheap. Wanna guess what those Matrix style jackets cost? Good ones, not fake leather ones.

[Garnier Fructis]

I had this weird memory of falling down the stairs and requiring stitches on my head. It wasn't until like 5 years ago that I thought about it and realized that this could not possibly have happened as there is no trace of this in my medical history and nobody else seems to remember it.

It was probably a dream that I misinterpreted as reality.

[Darsithis]

I do wonder what memories I have that are dreams. For instance, I have a very old, very, very old memory of my parents picking me up from my aunt and uncle's house and bringing me to their apartment in Chicago. What I remember of it is a huge room with a fish tank at one end, but nothing else. The memory ends.

I do know that they did indeed take us back for a short time when I was four before giving us up again. Whether or not that memory is reality or just part of the knowledge that something happened is the question. I can't really think of any others, though. The rest of my earliest memories have been substantiated by family enough to know they're real.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Could this election cycle be a dream?

[Independent voter]

It's very easy to explain, as I have noticed my self doing it. Some of the stories my parents tell of me before 8 y/o are things that seem like memories, but if I really think about it, I only "remember" what people tell me. I never introduce any new items to the story, but the memory matches what others tell me happened. As memory fades, the distinction of you remembering and you remembering what someone else said, gets muddled the same way all memories do.

Yeah, I think it happens to the very young a lot. I have some memories from when I was a toddler that everyone insists never happened.

If you listen to some people tell a story about an event, over time it will change, usually to make the story better. This new version then becomes the memory. People of all ages do this.