In a 2015 study, published in “Psychological Science”, a researcher managed to induce false memories of delinquent acts committed in adolescence, in 70% of study participants. The researchers recounted real and fake events from their childhood, with a certain number of real elements in the latter case (city of residence, friends, etc.). Then, in a subsequent session, they were asked to try to recall those events by presenting the study as an experiment in retrieving forgotten memories. At the end of this protocol, the majority of subjects mistakenly thought they remembered having had problems with the law.
Beware of manipulators!
As a result, some charlatans could take advantage of this phenomenon, and induce false memories in someone to take advantage of it. Anxious and suggestible people are particularly susceptible to the creation of false memories, it has been proven. In hypnosis, for example, you can create false memories in someone.
dissociative amnesia
Conversely, in some cases, difficult memories can really be repressed. We call it “dissociative amnesia”. It is a defense mechanism to try to get over particularly difficult events, which happened to us in childhood (or later).