False memories can be planted under interrogation, according to US scientists

Scientists have planted false memories into people's minds in a study that demonstrates just how easy it is to for police to convince people they have witnessed something that did not actually happen.

More than a third of people are susceptible to false memories, according to studies by Elizabeth Loftus, professor of psychology at the University of California. Her experiments could explain why so many people in Washington DC said they saw a white van near to the scene of last year's sniper shootings. In fact, the snipers used a dark Chevrolet Caprice and no white van was involved.

"Where did that white van come from? It came from the fact that someonetalked to the media and suddenly the whole country is looking for a white van that perhaps did not exist," she said.

In one study, Professor Loftus implanted a false memory in the minds of volunteers who had visited Disneyland as children. "We have tried to come up with ways of planting memories that could not have happened. We try to make people believe that when they went to Disneyland they managed to shake hands with Bugs Bunny.

"Bugs could never have been at Disneyland because he is a Warner Bros character. Yet we've found a way of getting 36 per cent of our subjects to tell us they shook hands with Bugs.

"There are some methods of interrogation that are unwittingly or even deliberately suggestive. But there are some situations where law enforcement agencies essentially lie to people that they are interviewing. They say things like 'another witness claims to have seen you there' ... some sort of lies that they think will lead to a confession," she said.