Memories Can Be Distorted – But Not in the Way That You Think

After the recent hearings regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the recollection of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford came into question. One conservative pundit, Ben Shapiro, suggested that because we had “two believable testimonies and no corroborating evidence,” we should basically dismiss Blasey Ford’s accusation. But in a disjointed opinion piece published on Newsweek.com, Shapiro confuses the science of memory, and what it tells us about how the brain forms, keeps, or distorts memories. Let’s walk through his claims and what science actually says about memory. Ben Shapiro is a political conservative pundit and a one-time lawyer who now runs a conservative website. I guess it is for these reasons he believes he’s somehow a good authority to speak about how memory works in humans in general, and in sexual assault cases specifically.1 Shapiro begins by suggesting, “One report from the U.S. National Research Council explains that eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable.” That’s great if we were talking about an eyewitness to a traffic accident or a bank robbery. But a person who has been sexually assaulted is not an eyewitness at all — they are the victim. Those are two completely different roles, but it’s something Shapiro hopes you don’t think too critically about as he barrels through his muddy analysis. This carries into a discussion about false memories. Shapiro quotes Elizabe...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Brain and Behavior General Minding the Media Psychology Research Violence and Aggression Ben Shapiro Brett Kavanaugh False Memories Sexual Assault Source Type: blogs