When Lies Become the Truth:The Impact of Lying on Memory in the Courtroom

A popular axiom is that lying can become the truth or that people can come to believe in their own lies. The underlying assumption here is that lying and remembering are closely intertwined such that lying can alter one’s memory. This has clear and obvious societal and legal ramifications. Yet, strikingly, there is little research on how lying impacts memory. This is all the more peculiar because lying and remembering play a key role in, for example, the legal arena and in politics, as recent discussions on “alternative facts” show. Indeed, research on deception and studies on memory have been largely distinct lines of investigation. The primary purpose of the current proposal is to bridge this gap. Specifically, the effects of lying on memory from a legal psychological view will be examined. In the current proposal, I will address different ways in which lying (false denials, feigning amnesia, fabrication) may shape memory in legal contexts.

Keywords:Memory, False Memory, Deception, Courtroom

Disciplines:Criminological theories