Pig instead of lion: Why false memories can be wrong

Pig instead of lion: Why false memories can be wrong

police officers and residents in Berlin were certain that they saw a lion. It turned out to be a pig. How can that be?

The search for a suspected lion in Berlin kept the capital in suspense for two days. Hundreds of police officers were partly used with protective shields and machine guns, as did a veterinary doctor and the Berlin city hunter. Residents and police officers had reported sightings of the animal. Now it turned out: Apparently there was no lion. In fact, only one wild boar was up to mischief on the outskirts. The psyche possibly played a prank.

The psyche often plays strokes. For example, when it comes to memories of events that have never taken place-it is also called the "Mandela effect". Accordingly, crowds of people can also remember an event wrong. Many people, for example, thought that Nelson Mandela had died in captivity - but in fact he was released from custody in 1990 and only died decades later.

In scientific studies on the phenomenon, testers were able to successfully convince the test subjects of false memories. The psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, for example, suggested the participant to meet the rabbit bugs Bunny on the site of a Walt Disney Park. Afterwards, the test subjects were able to vividly remember the meeting, which never existed. Because Bugs Bunny belongs to the Universum of Warner Brothers - a competitor of Walt Disney.

Given the self-perceived but actually false memories, the Mandela effect is also of great importance in court processes. The Västerås case, for example, gained awareness in Sweden, in which a woman accused her father of more than 200 rape after psychotherapy, which later turned out to be a wrong memory. The phenomenon, also referred to as confabulation, is really explained, so far not, but is probably triggered by certain brain activities. Also your own childhood memories can be falsified, for example from a hot air balloon ride that did not exist. "Some were actually slightly shocked because of course they realized that it is relatively easy to suggest memories," said media psychologist Aileen Oeberst in an interview with Deutschlandfunk on a study on the subject.

Collective consciousness also plays a role. Because the more people are convinced of the false memories. The intensive reporting on the search for a lion in Berlin could have contributed to consolidating the topic in people's minds.

Similar examples from the past are, for example, the viewing of bigfoot in the USA or the monster of Loch-Ness in Scotland-the legends are much cited and world-famous and both mythical creatures are repeatedly seen. In Berlin, supposed lion roaring had probably further inspired the imagination. According to the police, the noise was a joke of young people with a loudspeaker. "This does not help the municipality or the police," said a laconic comment by a police spokesman.

Video snippets that circulated on Thursday on social networks should show the animal. The video was real, it said of investigative authorities. Berlin's wildlife expert Derk Ehlert, however, only recognized two wild boars that run from left to right, as he said RBB radio. "But of course I believe the witnesses, the colleagues from the police in Berlin, who have seen such an animal real," added Ehlert. Because, according to a spokeswoman for the authorities, police officers had also stated that they had "secured" the big cat. There were further possible sightings on Thursday afternoon and evening in the Berlin city area, near the southern border with Brandenburg. However, concrete traces for a lion - such as blood, feces or paw prints - were missing. That makes him puzzling, says Ehlert. Veterinary doctor Achim Gruber from the Free University of Berlin also expressed doubts as to whether it could be a lion.

After all, there are incorruptible witnesses that are not biased by suggestion or intensive media reporting: hunting dogs,