Victims who falsely deny: memory impacts of false denials of a simulated domestic abuse narrative

Victims of domestic abuse sometimes falsely deny abuse. Yet it remains unclear whether these false denials affect the victim's memory. We examined whether simulated false denial of a fictional domestic abuse situation affected the participants' memory. Additionally, we examined whether interview modality had any impact on the memory effects of false denial. In the first session, participants (N = 126) read the domestic abuse narrative and imagined themselves as the main character (i.e. the victim). Next, half of the participants were instructed to falsely deny the domestic abuse, while the other half were instructed to respond honestly during a simulated police interview, where they portrayed the main character. Half completed a written interview within each group, while the other half participated in an oral interview. During the second session a week later, participants were asked a series of questions which tested their memory for the narrative and the interview. We found that false denial from a victim perspective generates denial-induced forgetting effects for the interview and that it generates forgetting effects for the narrative. Furthermore, it demonstrated that participants gave more correct responses after oral interviews, than after written interviews.