- About one-third of the people who were exposed to a fake
print advertisement that described a visit to Disneyland and how they met
and shook hands with Bugs Bunny later said they remembered or knew the
event happened to them.
-
- The scenario described in the ad never occurred because
Bugs Bunny is a Warner Bros. cartoon character and wouldn't be featured
in any Walt Disney Co. property, according to University of Washington
memory researchers Jacquie Pickrell and Elizabeth Loftus. Pickrell will
make two presentations on the topic at the annual meeting of the American
Psychological Society (APS) on Sunday (June 17) in Toronto and at a satellite
session of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition in
Kingston, Ontario, on Wednesday.
-
- "The frightening thing about this study is that
it suggests how easily a false memory can be created," said Pickrell,
UW psychology doctoral student.
-
- "It's not only people who go to a therapist who
might implant a false memory or those who witness an accident and whose
memory can be distorted who can have a false memory. Memory is very vulnerable
and malleable. People are not always aware of the choices they make. This
study shows the power of subtle association changes on memory."
-
- The research is a follow-up to an unpublished study by
Loftus, a UW psychology professor who is being honored by the APS this
week with its William James Fellow Award for psychological research; Kathryn
Braun, a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School; and Rhiannon
Ellis, a former UW undergraduate who is now a doctoral student at the University
of Pittsburgh. In the original study, 16 percent of the people exposed
to a Disneyland ad featuring Bugs Bunny later thought they had seen and
met the cartoon rabbit.
-
- In the new research, Pickrell and Loftus divided 120
subjects into four groups. The subjects were told they were going to evaluate
advertising copy, fill out several questionnaires and answer questions
about a trip to Disneyland.
-
- The first group read a generic Disneyland ad that mentioned
no cartoon characters. The second group read the same copy and was exposed
to a 4-foot-tall cardboard figure of Bugs Bunny that was casually placed
in the interview room. No mention was made of Bugs Bunny. The third, or
Bugs group, read the fake Disneyland ad featuring Bugs Bunny. The fourth,
or double, exposure group read the fake add and also saw the cardboard
rabbit.
-
- This time 30 percent of the people in the Bugs group
later said they remembered or knew they had met Bugs Bunny when they visited
Disneyland and 40 percent of the people in the double exposure group reported
the same thing.
-
- "'Remember' means the people actually recall meeting
and shaking hands with Bugs," explained Pickrell. "'Knowing'
is they have no real memory, but are sure that it happened, just as they
have no memory of having their umbilical cord being cut when they were
born but know it happened.
-
- "Creating a false memory is a process. Someone saying,
'I know it could have happened,' is taking the first step of actually creating
a memory. If you clearly believe you walked up to Bugs Bunny, you have
a memory."
-
- In addition, Pickrell said there is the issue of the
consequence of false memories or the ripple effects. People in the experiment
who were exposed to the false advertising were more likely to relate Bugs
Bunny to other things at Disneyland not suggested in the ad, such as seeing
Bugs and Mickey Mouse together or seeing Bugs in the Main Street Electrical
Parade.
-
- "We are interested in how people create their autobiographical
references, or memory. Through this process they might be altering their
own memories," she said. "Nostalgic advertising works in a similar
manner. Hallmark, McDonald's and Disney have very effective nostalgic advertising
that can change people's buying habits. You may not have had a great experience
the last time you visited Disneyland or McDonald's, but the ads may be
inadvertently be creating the impression that they had a wonderful time
and leaving viewers with that memory. If ads can get people to believe
they had an experience they never had, that is pretty powerful.
-
- "The bottom line of our study is that the phony
ad is making the difference. Just casually reading a Bugs Bunny cartoon
or some other incidental exposure doesn't mean you believe you met Bugs.
The ad does."
-
-
- Note: This story has been adapted from a news release
issued by University Of Washington for journalists and other members
of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of this story, please
credit University Of Washington as the original source. You may also
wish to include the following link in any citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010612065657.htm
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