Misinformation Effect

mechanism

Memory is reconstructed, not simply replayed. A question can seed that reconstruction with an assumption, changing both the immediate answer and what the person later believes occurred.

People shown the same car crash estimated different speeds depending on whether the vehicles were described as having “smashed” into each other or merely “contacted.” The verb altered the remembered event.

The question supplies part of the memory

Recall requires the mind to reconstruct an event. During that reconstruction, the wording of a question acts as additional input: “smashed” carries an assumption of greater force than “contacted,” so the mind uses a different frame to rebuild what happened. The nudge works before an answer is fully formed, blurring the boundary between what was witnessed and what was suggested.

Where it shows up

One crash, two remembered speeds

Elizabeth Loftus’s experiment isolates the mechanism neatly: the event stayed constant while a single verb changed participants’ speed estimates. The difference came not from new visual evidence, but from language introduced during recall.

Suggestion is influence, not total control

The experiment shows that question wording can shift a reconstructed judgment; it does not establish that every memory is false or that any suggestion can manufacture any belief. The demonstrated effect is narrower: loaded language can contaminate recall when it embeds a plausible interpretation of the event.

Remove the claim from the question

When accuracy matters, ask for an uninterrupted account before posing specifics. Replace “How fast were the cars when they smashed?” with “Describe what happened,” then record the answer before introducing labels, estimates, or competing versions.

Episodes that teach this

The Shocking Science Behind Ghosts - FutureIQ 8,409 views
Elizabeth Loftus's car-crash experiment contrasted "smashed" with "contacted," leading people to estimate different speeds.