S. Porter et al., Negotiating false memories: Interviewer and rememberer characteristics relate to memory distortion, PSYCHOL SCI, 11(6), 2000, pp. 507-510
In a recent study, more than half of the participants were led to create a
partial or complete false memory far an emotional childhood event (e.g., se
rious animal attack). Using a subsample from that study, we examined the hy
pothesis that memory distortion is related to characteristics of interviewe
rs and rememberers. The relations between susceptibility to memory distorti
on and (a) dissociation (Dissociative Experiences Scale) and (b) personalit
y traits (NEO-Five Factor Inventory) were investigated. Results indicated t
hat participants who exhibited memory distortion scored significantly highe
r on the dissociative scale than their counterparts who did not exhibit mem
ory distortion. Further, susceptibility to memory distortion was associated
with higher extraversion scores in interviewers and lower extraversion sco
res in participants. This pattern of findings suggests that Salse memories
may derive from a social negotiation between particular interviewers and re
memberers.