Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist who specializes in malleable memory and a decade ago wrote a book on The Myth of Repressed Memory, recently found that people can learn to avoid foods (such as strawberry ice cream) or like others (such as asparagus) based on lies
that they either got sick on the food as a child or that the food was
one of their favorites. Implanted memories may sound like something out
of a Phillip K. Dick story, but that’s what Loftus’s team was able to
do with one-fifth of students in an experiment. Don’t think too hard
about the implications, but be glad that police collect DNA evidence,
too.
by Locker Room contributor