RE: Fake News Can Create Fake Memories
I love, love, love all things Elizabeth Loftus! :D
I like how you related this phenomenon of false memory to current affairs @kralizec. Especially because false memories have the potential to impact individuals to the extent of influencing their behaviour in the long term. When such influence happens in way that build social tensions, this can become truly worrisome.
It is true that the majority of people are not susceptible to having entirely false memories implanted in their minds (as studies - by Loftus - have found). But research has also shown that individuals afflicted by chronic stress are the ones more susceptible to it. So, can you imagine in the context of highly contentious topics like abortion and the Brexit referendum?
Nowadays, we live in a world were stress and tensions arise from phenomena that aren't even real :/ This is why we have the responsibility to think more critically about the pieces of news we stumble upon.
All the best to you,
Abigail