[A-List] inducing false memories

[Rick <rsspam@xxxxxxxxx>]

this just in -- though it's probably old news in some circles....

full article contains the amazing line:

" Although we cannot change the past, we can change how people
remember the past."

I think we can imagine other uses besides health care.

- Rick

-------------- abstract ---------

 False beliefs about fattening foods can have healthy consequences

 Daniel M. Bernstein *, Cara Laney , Erin K. Morris ,  and Elizabeth F. Loftus

*University of Washington and Kwantlen University College, Department
of Psychology, Box 351525, Seattle, WA 98195-1525; and University of
California, Irvine, CA 92697-7085

This contribution is part of the special series of Inaugural Articles
by members of the National Academy of Sciences elected on April 20,
2004.

Contributed by Elizabeth F. Loftus, June 28, 2005

We suggested to 228 subjects in two experiments that, as children,
they had had negative experiences with a fattening food. An
additional 107 subjects received no such suggestion and served as
controls. In Experiment 1, a minority of subjects came to believe
that they had felt ill after eating strawberry ice cream as children,
and these subjects were more likely to indicate not wanting to eat
strawberry ice cream now. In contrast, we were unable to obtain these
effects when the critical item was a more commonly eaten treat
(chocolate chip cookie). In Experiment 2, we replicated and extended
the strawberry ice cream results. Two different ways of processing
the false suggestion succeeded in planting the false belief and
producing avoidance of the food. These findings show that it is
possible to convince people that, as children, they experienced a
negative event involving a fattening food and that this false belief
results in avoidance of that food in adulthood. More broadly, these
results indicate that we can, through suggestion, manipulate
nutritional selection and possibly even improve health.