People can come to believe lies they once knew were false, and experiments show it can happen within weeks

the gist

People can come to believe fictions they invented, not only lies told by others. In a 2018 study by Laura Paige, participants filled out a questionnaire, told to lie on half the questions, and later some came to accept the lies as true, especially older adults. A 2008 study by Chobrak and Zaragoza asked people to invent detailed false life events, and after eight weeks nearly half reported them as real, even after they had refuted them earlier. The mechanism is that the memory of a source gets lost while the content stays, so familiar invented details feel like genuine recollections. The case of Tania Head, a woman who falsely claimed to be a 9/11 survivor, is an extreme example, though whether she believed her own story is unknown. The effect has implications for police interviews and false confessions.

how it works

Memories are reconstructed each time they are recalled, so the brain keeps the content of an experience while the tag saying where it came from fades. A story repeated or practised often enough can feel familiar, and familiarity is easily mistaken for remembered experience.

so what

Self-deception helps explain how false information takes hold in private memories, the press and courtrooms. It shows that confidence in a memory is not proof it happened.

Wellcome Collection · CC BY 4.0

Illustrative photo · Susanne Diekelmann, Hans-Peter Landolt, Olaf Lahl, Jan Born…, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

source: Wellcome Collection ↗

historyWikipediaclassic1336–1565 · Karnataka, India

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗