Misinformation acceptance

Misinformation acceptance is the tendency to believe statements heard after some critical event as being true of the original event itself. For example, a man who just witnessed a robbery at a hardware store may not remember the robber's specific actions, but is willing to accept that the robber took a screwdriver when the narrator mentions it. Later on, the man reports having seen the screwdriver. This tendency is possibly a major component of memory distortion, i.e., deviation of memory output from memory input.

According to Loftus, an expert on misinformation effect of human memory, this phenomenon “occurs quite often in real life whenever people who experience the same event talk to one another, overhear each other talk, or gain access to new information from the media, interrogators, or other sources”; she also emphasizes that "misinformation acceptance has not received the appreciation that it deserves as a phenomenon worthy of our sustained investigation" (Loftus, 1989).

Misinformation acceptance occurs when people “accept additional information as having been part of an earlier experience without actually remembering that information” (Ashcraft & Radvansky, 2006). People are ready to accept information given after the fact and become certain about the secondhand memories. Misinformation acceptance gets stronger as more time passes for the event and the original memory turn out to be less accessible (Payne, Toglia & Anastasi, 1994).

References

Ashcraft, M. H. & Radvansky, G. A. (2006). Cognition (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Loftus, E. F. & Hoffman, H. G. (1989). Misinformation and memory, the creation of new memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 118(1)-100-104.

Payne, D. G., Toglia, M. P., & Anastasi, J. S. (1994). Recognition performance level and the magnitude of the misinformation effect in eyewitness memory. Psychonomic Belletin and Review, 1, 376-382.

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