First kiss Quote by David McRaney
““A memory is least accurate when most reflected upon, and most accurate when least pondered. Together, those two facts make eyewitness testimony basically worthless. This isn’t what most people believe. Psychologists Dan Simons and Christopher Chabris published a study in 2011 revealing that 63 percent of those surveyed in the United States believe memory works like a video camera, and another 48 percent believe memories are permanent. An additional 37 percent said that eyewitness testimony was reliable enough to be the only evidence necessary to convict someone accused of a crime. Those are seriously shocking facts to a psychologist or a neuroscientist, because none of those things is true. You don’t record everything you see, nor do you notice everything that comes into your mind. The only things that make it past the ears and eyes are those things to which you attend. Memories are not recordings. The moment your first kiss was over, the memory of it began to decay. Each time you recall it, the event is reformed in your mind anew and differently, influenced by your current condition and by all the wisdom you’ve acquired since and all the erroneous details you’ve added.””
About This Quote
Source Book: “You Are Not So Smart” by David McRaney, 2011
Memory is reconstructive, not a perfect recording; each recall reshapes it, making eyewitness testimony unreliable.
In simple terms: Memories change each time we recall them, so they’re not exact recordings.
Treat eyewitness evidence with caution and seek corroboration.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- court trials
- police investigations
- personal recollections
- historical research
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you verify a memory’s accuracy?
- What safeguards can reduce wrongful convictions?
Eyewitness accounts can still be valuable when supported by physical evidence and multiple sources.