Study Finds 'Flashbulb' Memories of 9/11 Often Wrong, Yet Believed With Confidence

Researchers who began surveying Americans about their memories of September 11, 2001, in the days after the attacks, publishing their work in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, say that about 40% of the details people recall — such as how they learned of the attacks, who they were with and what they were doing — do not match what those same people reported at the time.

The team, led by William Hirst, asked a few thousand people across the United States about their memories within days of the attacks, then followed up with the same people one year, three years and 10 years later; they are now collecting the group's memories after a quarter-century. After just one year, about 40% of the details people gave did not match their initial reports, yet participants remained extremely confident their memories were accurate.

In some cases the errors were substantial: one person initially said he was at work when he heard of the attacks, but a year later said he was on a train; another initially described being with her husband, then a year later remembered being with her son. The researchers found that once an erroneous memory took hold after a year, it tended to remain stable in later interviews, even though it was wrong.

The researchers say such "flashbulb memories" are not unique to 9/11. A 1970s survey found that 75% of Black Americans had a flashbulb memory of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., compared with 32% of white Americans, and most Britons have a flashbulb memory of Princess Diana's death while most Italians do not.

The researchers also found that people perceive Americans who have a flashbulb memory of 9/11 as having a stronger American identity than those who do not, and that losing that memory is seen as a greater loss of identity than forgetting the attack itself.