A recurring theme on this blog is the danger of relying too heavily on the accounts of events in in the New Testament. Even eyewitness testimony is less-than-optimally reliable, and time and retelling can distort any story. I’m copying this quote about memory distortion from a legal-journal article on stock-option backdating so that I’ll be able to find it later. The context of the quote is the difficulty of determining in hindsight when a document was actually signed if there is reason for doubt about the stated signature date.
Countless studies reveal that human recollection even by the most forthright individual under the best possible circumstances is far from accurate.76 Distortions in memory range from slight modifications of the actual event to the construction of memories of events that never occurred.77 Both internal sources and external influences at the time of encoding and retrieval of memories affect the accuracy of recollection.78 For instance, providing subsequent suggestions or new information can completely distort someone’s original memory.79 Considering that ideal circumstances rarely exist and that even a person with the best of intentions will likely resolve uncertainties in his or her favor in at least some cases,80 the prospect of discerning an accurate set of “facts” is often dim.
Jeffrey L. Kwall & Stuart Duhl, Backdating, 63 The Business Lawyer 1153, 1166-67 (2008).
Footnotes in original:
76. Daniel L. Schacter, Kenneth A. Norman & Wilma Koutstaal, The Cognitive Neuroscience of Constructive Memory, 49 Ann. Rev. of Psychol. 298 (1998) (noting that since 1932 psychological studies have indicated that memory is not an exact reproduction of events, rather it is a constructive process that can be distorted).
77. See Guiliana Mazzoni & Manila Vannucci, Hindsight Bias, The Misinformation Effect, and False Autobiographical Memories, 25 Soc. Cognition 203, 208-09 (2007).
78. See Valerie F. Reyna, Robyn Holliday & Tammy Marche, Explaining the Development of False Memories, 22 Developmental Rev. 436, 441-42 (2002). See also Mazzoni & Vannuci, supra note 77, at 211 (stating that factors such as familiarity, plausibility, and memorability of an event as well as social variables can cause people to have biased recollections and false memories).
79. Mazzoni & Vannucci, supra note 77, at 205.
80. See Raymond S. Nickerson, Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises, 2 Rev. of Gen. Psychol. 175, 178 (1998).
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