Perception control through subtle word choice – the 1974 Loftus and Palmer study

This is one of the classic examples from persuasion research. The unreliability of eyewitness testimony, and the power of leading questions.

Participants were more likely to say the cars were going faster when asked “How fast were they going when the cars smashed into each other?” compared to “How fast were they going when the cars bumped into each other?”

By changing one simple word in the description of an event the participants had just witnessed, researchers could bias their answers and rewrite their memories without anybody knowing it had happened.

Psychology Study screenshot: Loftus and Palmer (1974) Study.

Aim: To test their hypothesis that the language used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory. 7 films of traffic accidents, ranging in duration from 5 to 30 seconds, were presented in a random order to each group. After watching the film participants were asked to describe what had happened as if they were eye witnesses. They were then asked specific questions, including the question "About how fast were the cars going when they (smashed / collided / bumped hit / contacted) each other?" 

Findings: The estimated speed was affected by the verb used. The verb implied information about the speed, which systematically affected the participants' memory of the accident. Participants who were asked the "smashed" question thought the cars were going faster than those who were asked the "hit" question. The participants in the "smashed" condition reported the highest speed estimate (40.8 mph), followed by "collided" (39-3 mph), "bumped" (38.1 mph), "hit" (34 mph), and "contacted" (31.8 mph) in descending order.

Conclusion: The results show that the verb conveyed an impression of the speed the car was traveling and this altered the participants' perceptions. In other words, eyewitness testimony might be biased by the way questions are asked after a crime is committed.

The media manipulation empire has been studying human psychology for generations. It knows precisely how to bias responses to certain events by controlling some of the simplest language patterns.

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