How we remember events is influenced by others. We tend to have better memory for information that is related to groups that we are members of, such as people from our country, other supporters of our football club, or other members of a political group. In their recent paper, Marius Boeltzig, who is a FOR2812 PhD student at the University of Münster, together with Mikael Johansson and Inês Bramão from Lund University, extended this line of research.

They found that it is not only our memories that are impacted by others, but also the way that we use these memories. By recombining separate memories, we can infer new knowledge. For instance, when you read in an article that the government introduced a new measure to reduce unemployment, and a year later hear that unemployment has decreased, you may put these two separate instances together and infer that the new measure is responsible for the effect. The research by Boeltzig and colleagues shows that this combining of separate memories is more likely to happen when the source of the information is liked or trusted than when it is disliked. For instance, you would be more likely to give the new measure credit when you read about it in a newspaper that you trust or that is close to your political leaning.

The authors have recently written an article in The Conversation that explains their findings. The original research is also freely available from Communications Psychology.

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