False Memories and Media Modality: An Experimental Study on College Students

Abstract

False memories occur when individuals recall events that never happened or misremember details of real events. This study explored the impact of media modality (text vs. video) and story valence (positive, negative, neutral/real) on false memory formation in college students. A total of 70 participants (undergraduate and postgraduate, aged 18–30) were randomly assigned to either a text condition or video condition, where they were exposed to three news stories: (1) a positive but fictional story about a foreign leader (Donald Trump) praising India and chanting “Jai Shree Ram” for the Ram Mandir, (2) a negative fictional health story about MSG in noodles causing dementia, and (3) a real news report of the 2023 Chinese balloon incident. After exposure, participants completed a memory recognition questionnaire and rated their confidence in each memory. Results indicated that video modality produced higher false memory rates compared to text, especially for the positive and negative fictional stories. In contrast, the real story was accurately recalled by most participants in both modalities. Participants in the video condition also reported greater confidence in their memories. These findings align with international research showing the ease with which fake news can induce false memories and suggest that rich audiovisual media may amplify memory illusions. The study highlights the importance of media literacy and ethical considerations when presenting information, given the ease of memory distortion.