"Your Brain Lies to You"

Image source: "With MRI lie detectors
your brain gives you away"
Marc Perton, Engadget

My friend Julianne pointed out this article by SAM WANG and SANDRA AAMODT from the New York Times (June 27, 2008). The authors describe the phenomenon of "source amnesia", the process by which through the accessing and restorage of information we eventually forget its original source and simply remember the fact.

You know George Washington was the first president of the United States, but you almost surely don't remember the places where you found that information. Unfortunately, you may also know that he threw a dollar across the Potomac and cut down the cherry tree, even though he never did those things. Since you can't remember where you "learned" about such throws and cuts, it is hard to reevaluate that "knowledge".

How important is this phenomenon? Wang and Aamodt write:

A false statement from a noncredible source that is at first not believed can gain credibility during the months it takes to reprocess memories from short-term hippocampal storage to longer-term cortical storage. As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications gain strength. This could explain why, during the 2004 presidential campaign, it took some weeks for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Senator John Kerry to have an effect on his standing in the polls.

Even if they do not understand the neuroscience behind source amnesia, campaign strategists can exploit it to spread misinformation. They know that if their message is initially memorable, its impression will persist long after it is debunked. In repeating a falsehood, someone may back it up with an opening line like “I think I read somewhere” or even with a reference to a specific source.

This echoes a point I made in a previous posting. The negative advertising being used in the current election campaign, most notably by the McCain campaign, has included statements found to be false. Unfortunately, some of those statements will remain in voters' memories dissociated from their sources, and accepted as truth rather than the falsehoods that they are.

Protect yourself by remembering the candidate responsible for the falsehood. Protect us all by voting against him/her.