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Psychology · Chapter 7

The Leading Question

Every group watched the same film of a car crash. Then each was asked how fast the cars were going — with one word changed. The remembered speed, and even whether there was broken glass, bent to fit that word. Pick a verb to run Loftus & Palmer's classic demo of the misinformation effect.

The remembered crash

Average speed this group reported—
A week later: "Did you see broken glass?"—
The eyewitness filmthe same crash shown to every group
"About how fast were the cars going when they ____ each other?"
Choose the verb the questioner uses:
Why it works. Memory is reconstructive, not a recording. A leading question slips new information into the gap, and the brain files it as part of the original event. Elizabeth Loftus named this the misinformation effect (Loftus & Palmer, 1974) — and it is why eyewitness testimony can be so confidently wrong.