Retracted memories in the general population: are there differences between eastern and western countries?

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of the current studies was to examine retracted experiences in the general population from various cultural backgrounds. More specifically, in two studies, we examined the details of memory retraction experiences, the reasons for retraction, and the outcomes of retraction in participants from China and other countries, mainly the United States of America. It was found that memory retraction experiences appeared to be quite common. In the sample of Chinese participants (Study 1: N = 1380), 50.58% reported at least one such an experience, whereas in respondents from other countries (Study 2; N = 425), a significantly lower but still substantial prevalence rate of 35% was found. In general, the retracted memories predominantly involved positive events and some respondents experienced pressure during the withdrawal. Social feedback and event plausibility were the two main reasons for the withdrawal. Compared to recollection scores, belief scores decreased significantly after withdrawal, and some respondents even formed nonbelieved memories. After retracting the memories, most respondents felt they gained benefits (e.g., they had resolved a psychological problem that had bothered them for years). These studies give us a more general understanding of retracted memory experiences in the general population.

KEYWORDS:

• Retracted memory experiences
• nonbelieved memories
• general population
• retractors

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/khecb/ and https://osf.io/khecb/.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data and analyses scripts are at https://osf.io/khecb/

Additional information

Funding

The research presented in this paper was support of the China Scholarship Council (grant number: 202007650008), awarded to Chunlin Li, and the FWO Research project grant (grant number: G0D3621N), which was awarded to Henry Otgaar.