Suggestibility
We incorporate misleading information from external sources into our personal recollections.
Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. In memory research, it refers specifically to the tendency to incorporate misinformation from external sources into one's memory. Leading questions in eyewitness testimony (e.g., 'How fast was the car going when it smashed into the other car?' vs. 'when it hit') produce systematically different memory reports.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life Eyewitness Testimony Witnesses who hear other witnesses describe an event incorporate those details into their own memory, even when they did not personally observe those details.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
Tom now believes he noticed a scratch on the rental car before driving it, after the agent pointed out a different scratch upon return and suggested it was pre-existing.
Maria insists the restaurant had poor lighting, after her friend said the atmosphere was 'dingy.' She didn't recall commenting on the lights during her actual visit.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
Get Debias on Google Play