Assassination of a controversial politician: remembering details from another non-existent film

M. Jelicic*, T. Smeets, M.J.V. Peters, I.E.L. Candel, R. Horselenberg, H.L.G.J. Merckelbach

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We asked undergraduate students (N=83) if they had seen non-existent video footage of the assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, and whether they could remember details of this footage. Sixty-three percent of the participants indicated they had seen the footage, and 23% were able to provide details of this footage. Participants with 'memories' of the non-existent footage had higher fantasy proneness scores than those who could not remember this footage. Results underscore the malleability of our autobiographical memory.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)591-596
JournalApplied Cognitive Psychology
Volume20
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2006

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