conv.

All stories
ScienceQuiet 10d · day 12

Long-running study finds most 9/11 “flashbulb” memories are wrong, but people stay convinced they're right

Researchers who have surveyed the same Americans since days after the attacks find roughly 40% of remembered details shift within a year — and stay wrong.

newest coverage 10d agosummary written 10d ago4 pieces2 likes & upvotes1 comments MastodonNewswiresHacker News

What to know

  • A study launched in the days after 9/11 tracked the same participants over 1, 3, 10 and now 25 years to test the accuracy of their 'flashbulb memories.'
  • About 40% of recalled details (who they were with, where they were, what they were doing) changed within just one year, yet participants remained highly confident their memories were correct.
  • Once an erroneous memory formed after year one, it tended to stay stable — the wrong version became the fixed memory going forward.
  • The researchers argue this shows memory is a reconstruction rather than a stable archive, and that confidence in a memory does not reliably track its accuracy.

“Memory is a reconstruction of past events, not a stable archive.”

The Conversation US (study authors), authors/memory researchers · The Conversation ↗ · Sep 11

The study's researchers Memory researchers running the 25-year 9/11 flashbulb-memory study

Long-running study finds most 9/11 “flashbulb” memories are wrong, but people stay convinced they're right
theconversation.com

How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts

Peak 3 pieces in 3h at Sep 12, 9 AM; 4 pieces over 12 days (2 articles · 2 posts) Sep 12, 9 AM — 3 pieces · 1 article · 2 posts — Mastodon 1, Newswires 1, Hacker News 1Sep 12, 12 PM — quietSep 12, 3 PM — quietSep 12, 6 PM — quietSep 12, 9 PM — quietSep 13, 12 AM — quietSep 13, 3 AM — quietSep 13, 6 AM — quietSep 13, 9 AM — quietSep 13, 12 PM — quietSep 13, 3 PM — quietSep 13, 6 PM — quietSep 13, 9 PM — quietSep 14, 12 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Newswires 1Sep 14, 3 AM — quietSep 14, 6 AM — quietSep 14, 9 AM — quietSep 14, 12 PM — quietSep 14, 3 PM — quietSep 14, 6 PM — quietSep 14, 9 PM — quietSep 15, 12 AM — quietSep 15, 3 AM — quietSep 15, 6 AM — quietSep 15, 9 AM — quietSep 15, 12 PM — quietSep 15, 3 PM — quietSep 15, 6 PM — quietSep 15, 9 PM — quietSep 16, 12 AM — quietSep 16, 3 AM — quietSep 16, 6 AM — quietSep 16, 9 AM — quietSep 16, 12 PM — quietSep 16, 3 PM — quietSep 16, 6 PM — quietSep 16, 9 PM — quietSep 17, 12 AM — quietSep 17, 3 AM — quietSep 17, 6 AM — quietSep 17, 9 AM — quietSep 17, 12 PM — quietSep 17, 3 PM — quietSep 17, 6 PM — quietSep 17, 9 PM — quietSep 18, 12 AM — quietSep 18, 3 AM — quietSep 18, 6 AM — quietSep 18, 9 AM — quietSep 18, 12 PM — quietSep 18, 3 PM — quietSep 18, 6 PM — quietSep 18, 9 PM — quietSep 19, 12 AM — quietSep 19, 3 AM — quietSep 19, 6 AM — quietSep 19, 9 AM — quietSep 19, 12 PM — quietSep 19, 3 PM — quietSep 19, 6 PM — quietSep 19, 9 PM — quietSep 20, 12 AM — quietSep 20, 3 AM — quietSep 20, 6 AM — quietSep 20, 9 AM — quietSep 20, 12 PM — quietSep 20, 3 PM — quietSep 20, 6 PM — quietSep 20, 9 PM — quietSep 21, 12 AM — quietSep 21, 3 AM — quietSep 21, 6 AM — quietSep 21, 9 AM — quietSep 21, 12 PM — quietSep 21, 3 PM — quietSep 21, 6 PM — quietSep 21, 9 PM — quietSep 22, 12 AM — quietSep 22, 3 AM — quietSep 22, 6 AM — quietSep 22, 9 AM — quietSep 22, 12 PM — quietSep 22, 3 PM — quietSep 22, 6 PM — quietSep 22, 9 PM — quietYesterday, 12 AM — quietYesterday, 3 AM — quietYesterday, 6 AM — quietYesterday, 9 AM — quietYesterday, 12 PM — quietYesterday, 3 PM — quietYesterday, 6 PM — quietYesterday, 9 PM — quietToday, 12 AM — quietToday, 3 AM — quietToday, 6 AM — quiet 1–23
Sep 13Sep 14Sep 15Sep 16Sep 17Sep 18Sep 19Sep 20Sep 21Sep 22now · 7:45 AM ET
  1. 3

    Hindustan Times republishes the study's findings

    Hindustan Times World picked up the same Conversation piece under its original headline, extending its reach to a global audience.

  2. 1 day quiet
  3. 2

    Story circulates on Hacker News and social media

    The article was shared to Hacker News and reposted via Mastodon/Flipboard's Science & Technology feed, spreading the study's findings further online.

  4. 1

    Researchers publish 25-year findings as they collect a new round of memories

    The Conversation US published the researchers' first-person account of the study as they collect participants' memories a quarter-century after the attacks, reiterating that memory is a reconstruction rather than a fixed record.

    “Memories are dynamic, not fixed. Even if what you’re remembering about your own experience isn’t quite how it all happened, those memories serve important roles.”
    — The Conversation US (study authors)
  5. background

    Ten-year follow-up shows erroneous memories had become stable — Researchers found that whatever version of events participants settled on after one year — accurate or not — tended to persist unchanged through the three-year and ten-year follow-ups.

  6. background

    One-year follow-up finds ~40% of remembered details had shifted — When the same participants were re-surveyed a year later, about 40% of the details did not match their initial reports, even though confidence in accuracy remained high; examples included a participant who first said he was at work but a year later said he was on a train.

  7. background

    Researchers begin surveying thousands of Americans days after 9/11 — The research team launched a survey in the days following the September 11, 2001 attacks, asking a few thousand people across the US how they learned of the attacks, who they were with, where they were, what they had been doing, and how confident they were in their memory.

Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet

  1. 2 outlets Your memories of how you heard about 9/11 may well be wrong – we’ve been asking the same people what they remember for 25 years

    first by Hindustan Times, 10d ago · also The Conversation US