Study Shows Couples More Likely to Misremember Together

A new study shows that couples are 27 times more likely than strangers to misremember details when they discuss a shared memory.

The study, published in the academic journal Memory, compared a group of monogamous married and unmarried couples who had been together for at least three months against a group of strangers randomly assembled into male / female pairs. Each pair was instructed to watch a movie through a special set of glasses, and was told that they would be testing the affect on vision of varying types of lenses. However, the glasses actually allowed researchers to show each member of the pair a different version of the same movie. The researchers then compared how likely each pair was to combine details from both movies to come up with a shared false memory of the event.

After discussing the movie together, couples were 27 times more likely to mislead one another about the contents of the movie than strangers. Both men and women were equally likely to lead each other into misremembering crucial details. Several subjects finished the discussion entirely convinced that they had witnessed details and events that did not take place in the version of the movie which they viewed. Although strangers were also able to exert some influence on each others' memory, this effect was minimal in comparison to the effect experienced by married couples and unmarried romantic partners.

The results suggest that couples who rely on each others' memories may actually be at risk for creating false memories of events that didn't actually occur. Couples use shared memory to create a common sense of the past and to preserve the story of their relationship; studies have shown that couples in which each partner easily accepts the influence of the other tend to be stronger and more satisfactory in the long term. However, the very factors which lead men and women to accommodate to one another in order to form a strong relationship bond can ultimately result in shared errors in memory.

Although the study focused on a non-critical situation (misremembering the details of a movie is a harmless, if common scenario), there have been plenty of historical cases where the testimony of romantic partners has made a critical difference in a criminal trial or police testimony. This study reinforces the importance of taking a critical look at collective memories, particularly collective memories shared by couples.