Think of some of America’s most notorious criminals of the last 50 years. There is a very high probability that these crossed paths with Elizabeth Loftus (78), the influential memory psychologist. Ted Bundy, the serial killer of at least 28 women? Loftus was present at the first trial of the killer in 1976. Decades later, the University of California, Irvine scholar is one of the most sought-after psychologists. He has defended characters like OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson; Ghislaine Maxwell (Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice) or Harvey Weinstein. In October he will appear in the trial of actor Kevin Spacey, accused of sexual abuse. His work has shown the manipulation of memories and the malleability of our memory. His most famous experiment was to create the wrong image in 24 people of being lost in a mall as children. His world-renowned work has questioned the strongest witnesses. Her brother told The New Yorker that if the Me Too movement had a 10 Most Wanted poster, she’d be into it. Loftus hosts EL PAÍS at his home on the university campus before traveling to Australia where his career is recognized by the National University.
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ASK. Her career began 50 years ago when a professor invited her to think about how our brain organizes and processes memory information…
REPLY.After completing my doctorate, I started to work on episodic memory, i.e. the memory of our everyday life, what we ate for breakfast yesterday or what happened in an accident that we witnessed. I focused on our memory of crimes and accidents. It is very susceptible to pollution and distortion.
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PWhat makes it so malleable?
RI look at his behavior, what people say and do based on his memories.
PHe has always fought to correct the notion that memory is like a tape recorder. He says it’s more like a Wikipedia page.
RThe events are not recorded in our memory so that we can reproduce them later. Our memory is in constant construction. And if we find it in a different environment, with a different kind of reasoning, it can change. I compare it to a Wikipedia page in the sense that you can edit the text and create slightly different versions. But others can also distort your memory.
Phandle.
RIt is manipulation when another person does it to us. I’m talking about external suggestion, someone feeding you a slightly different version or asking you leading questions. It can come from outside, but we can also do it ourselves. Part of it is why you remember getting better grades than you did, or voting in elections you didn’t vote in, or giving more money to charity than you donated.
PHave you done any experiments related to politics?
RThere are studies showing altered photos and implying they are genuine. We once showed a picture of Obama shaking hands with the former Iranian President. Many believed that the picture was real and that they had seen it before. They were more apt to believe it if they were politically conservative.
PDo you think politicians will take note of these experiments?
RI don’t know, but I feel like authoritarian governments have learned a lot about brainwashing citizens by repeating a lie over and over again.
PHow have social networks changed your work?
RThe ease with which we are bombarded with information across all platforms puts us at constant risk of exposure to disinformation that can contaminate our memories and impair our judgment or decision-making.
PHas your job been harder since the me-too movement started?
RAbsolutely. The road to justice is now paved with mines. The world has forgotten that we live in a country where people are innocent until proven otherwise. And just because someone has done something bad doesn’t mean they’ve done everything they’re accused of. With the Me Too movement, people seem to have forgotten these democratic ideals. So I had some difficulties, I was called as an expert witness in the defense of very, very unpopular people. People are swayed by tabloid stories and won’t admit that some of these allegations are false or suspicious.
PBut do you think Harvey Weinstein is innocent?
RI don’t know if he has done everything he is accused of. I have doubts about the case of a woman who claims to have been raped by him but who was in a relationship with him for a long time. She sent him notes that said, “I miss you, big boy. I can’t wait to see you.” I guess maybe you can fall in love with your rapist.
PIn Bill Cosby’s recent trial, an alleged victim had trouble remembering the details of an episode of abuse nearly 50 years ago.
RShe claimed to have been 15 at the time and to have gone to the Playboy Mansion with him. She said he took her hand and placed it on his penis. Now this woman is 60 years old. Turns out he wasn’t 15. Why did he say that was his age? Well, maybe because the punishment is worse. Turns out she went to the party about a week before her 17th birthday. He says he played Donkey Kong, a video game that wasn’t invented until six years later.
PIn the 1990s he fought strongly against the repressed memory movement. Do you think you won this fight?
RI think he’s reappeared in a new guise. Then thousands of people accused their parents, relatives, neighbors, practically everyone, of being victims of horrific and protracted cases of sexual abuse that they allegedly suppressed. There were thousands of allegations going to court, but things changed when hundreds of these patients sued their therapists for creating false memories. After 10 years of being raped, can the memory be reset and not remember anything? Where’s the evidence?
PIn a book he tells that he was a victim of abuse and 35 years later suddenly spoke about it.
RWhen I first released him, he was on the witness stand. A prosecutor messed with me. It has been suggested that this was a repressed memory, but it wasn’t. I had thought about this when I was young. I think the first person I told about this was my current ex-husband. [el también psicólogo Geoffrey Loftus]. What got me was the act of unleashing him right in a small town courtroom in a televised trial.
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