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Information presented after someone witnesses an event that is misleading and can potentially change their memory of that event. It is often problematic in criminal cases when witnesses are given MPI.

Misleading Postevent Information (MPI)

Individuals were found to be more susceptible to misremembering an event when they encountered misleading post-event information from a social source than when they encountered misleading post-event information from a non-social source. 

Socially vs. Non-Socially Encountered Misinformation

Although older adults tend to have less accurate memories of an event overall, they are less likely to affirm post-event misinformation than their younger counterparts. One possible explanation for this is that younger adults may feel more pressure to be in agreement with others.

Age differences in susceptibility to post-event misinformation

In a foundational 1974 study, Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer explored how leading questions could influence memory. They presented films of car accidents to 45 college students and asked them to estimate the speed of the vehicles. The critical manipulation was the verb used in the question, 'About how fast were the cars going when they ___ each other?' The verb was varied with words like 'smashed,' 'collided,' 'bumped,' 'hit,' or 'contacted.' The results showed a clear correlation between the intensity of the verb and the speed estimate: 'smashed' yielded an average estimate of about 41 mph, 'collided' 39 mph, 'bumped' 37 mph, 'hit' 34 mph, and 'contacted' 32 mph. In a follow-up a week later, participants in the 'smashed' group were also more than twice as likely to falsely recall seeing broken glass, demonstrating that post-event information can distort memories and even create false ones.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Car Crash Experiment

A person witnesses a minor car accident where a blue car fails to stop at a stop sign. The next day, a police officer interviewing the witness asks, "How fast was the blue car going when it ran the yield sign?" Based on what is known about memory, what is the most likely outcome when the witness is asked to recall the event again a week later?

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