Red Datsun

From MerrimackWiki

Definition

The Red Datsun was the car shown in the picture in a study by Loftus, Miller& Burns (1978) investigating the effect of misleading post event information.In this experiment half of participants saw a picture of the datsun at a stop sign and the other half saw the same picture with a yield sign instead. Subjects were asked questions about what they had seen and for some of the participants one of these questions involved incorrect information about the type of sign that had been presented. Participants were then given a recognition test and 80 % of those who had received misleading information responded incorrectly, compared to 90% who responded correctly in the control group.

Significance

This study demonstrated how unreliable memory can be, and how misleading post even information can alter the way that people remember an event.