Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

by Carol Tavris

said “Yes, it happened” to about 15 percent of the false allegations about the man’s visit; not a high percentage, but not a trivial one either. In the second group, however, the one in which influence tactics had been added, the three-year-olds said “Yes, it happened” to over 80 percent of the false allegations suggested to them, and the four- to six-year-olds said yes to about half the allegations. And those results occurred after interviews lasting only five to ten minutes; in actual criminal investigations, interviewers often question children repeatedly over weeks and months. In a similar study, this time with five- to seven-year-olds, investigators found they could easily influence the children to answer yes to preposterous questions, such as “Did Paco take you flying in an airplane?” What was more troubling was that within a short time, many of the children’s inaccurate statements had crystallized into stable, but false, memories.34