As I tried to point out during all the hyperventilating during the Brian Williams affair, this kind of thing is not related to honesty, or even to memory impairment. This is the predictable and expected outcome of the normal processes underlying human memory. This particular phenomenon is referred to as Source Confusion. Tom correctly remembers the story, but has forgotten the source of the story. Once those two things get disconnected, we lose the ability to accurately evaluate or contextualizing the memory, and sometimes, as wrong as it is, it still subjectively feels real.
When I was teaching I would call this the National Enquirer effect, because it is not uncommon for people to casually see a headline in the NE while standing in the checkout line, and later, regardless of how outlandish, report it as true to their friends, because they had forgotten where they had read it. This is why, in formal communication, we should always check the source and not rely on subjective memory. Confidence in a memory is independent of accuracy. But I’m not sure we hold raconteurs on late night talk shows quite to that standard. On Sat, 9 Jan 2021 at 11:22 AM Steve Timko <[email protected]> wrote: > The story about Lee Marvin and Captain Kangaroo at Iwo Jima is great, but > it's not true. > > https://www.incirlik.af.mil/News/Commentaries/Display/Article/303263/the-truth-is-better-than-fiction/ > > Ironically, Colbert told Tom Hanks he was a great talk show guest. Maybe > this is why. Hanks said he saw it himself, when it never happened. > > https://youtu.be/W9zFo8MO9Qk > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yzavPzFYAR6EJgc02sfxhcQ6WVaWbBtGb2Bk2UxrSM_qw%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yzavPzFYAR6EJgc02sfxhcQ6WVaWbBtGb2Bk2UxrSM_qw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKqjL%3D81CUhUXqVFTsYhwR%2BzBbAi1UO7SOEuZz%2Bb6bbpA%40mail.gmail.com.
