This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.
Definition
The quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others, which can lead to false memories.
When it shows up
In eyewitness testimony; when memory is being shaped by subsequent information. In police investigation: when repeated questioning subtly alters a witness's account of a crime. In UX research: when a moderator's framing of questions shapes participants' reported experiences.
Failure mode
False eyewitness testimony that convicts innocent people. Memory that feels vivid and certain but was shaped by post-event information.
Countermeasure
Understand that your vivid, confident memory may have been shaped by information you encountered after the event. Where accuracy matters, record contemporaneously.
Related traps
Also connected in the map5 more, locked
Credit & first seen
DiscoveredLoftus, E.F.&Palmer, J.C. (1974).'Reconstruction of automobile destruction.'Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour 13(5), 585-589 source ↗
Also revealed
Entry #132 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon