Hukommelsesbias

Hukommelsesbias, or memory bias, refers to systematic distortions in human memory that affect what people remember, how they remember it, and how they describe it later. Memory is fundamentally reconstructive, and biases can arise during encoding, storage, or retrieval. Factors such as current beliefs, mood, expectations, social influence, and exposure to suggestive information can shape recollections, producing memories that fit with present views rather than objective events.

Common forms include hindsight bias (believing an event was predictable after it has happened), consistency bias (altering memories to align with current attitudes), egocentric bias (overemphasizing one’s own role or perspective), and false memories or misattributions (recollections of events that never occurred or with incorrect details). The misinformation effect shows how post-event information can become integrated into memory, and recency or salience effects can bias what is recalled first or most vividly.

Implications are broad: they can influence eyewitness testimony, personal judgments, and decision-making. Research typically uses laboratory experiments, false-memory paradigms, and cognitive interviews to study how memories become biased and how retrieval processes propagate distortions.

Reducing hukommelsesbias involves careful questioning, avoidance of leading or suggestive information, independent corroboration, and recording events as they occur. In applied settings such as legal proceedings or journalism, awareness of memory bias encourages cautious interpretation of recalled information and verification with objective evidence.