Suggestibility
The tendency for leading information to reshape what we remember.
What it means
Suggestibility is the degree to which a person's memory report can be altered by external information, leading questions, social pressure, or repeated questioning, so that suggested details become incorporated into recollection. It is a recognized 'sin' of memory and a primary engine of the misinformation effect, distinct from simple compliance because the suggested content is genuinely believed to be remembered. Children and, in some respects, older adults are more susceptible, and the effect is amplified by authority, plausibility, and confident framing of the suggestion. Forensically it shapes best-practice interviewing, since careless questioning can manufacture confident but false testimony. It is closely tied to source confusion and to the imagination-inflation effect.
Examples
Asking 'How fast was the car going when it ran the red light?' can implant a red light a witness never saw.
A child asked the same question four times about what the man in the shop did eventually supplies a detail, then recounts it confidently — the repetition produced it, not the event.
A relative insists you were at the wedding where the cake collapsed. After two retellings you begin to picture the room, though you were abroad that entire week.
First described in Studied extensively by Elizabeth Loftus; Gudjonsson suggestibility scales (1984).