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  • [soft dramatic music]

  • - Hi, I'm Michael Stevens,

  • but who are you?

  • Do you even know who you are?

  • Are you your memories?

  • - I don't remember that.

  • - I don't remember that at all.

  • - Are you the choices you make?

  • The focus tester

  • is actually a magician.

  • - That's scary. [chuckles]

  • - Or are you your past?

  • - I hit the back of my head and I forgot my entire life.

  • Just like you hit a delete button on a computer.

  • - [quietly] Wow.

  • [electronic music]

  • ♪ ♪

  • Have you ever looked at a photograph of yourself

  • and thought, "That's what I look like?

  • Ugh."

  • We often think we look bad

  • or not right in photos

  • because photos show us what we really look like

  • to other people.

  • The you that you're used to seeing

  • is mirror you.

  • Every mirror you look into reverses your face.

  • Most selfie cameras do this too,

  • so we tend to prefer that version of ourselves.

  • If you wanna see yourself in a mirror

  • the way other people see you in real life,

  • take two mirrors

  • and position them at a 90-degree angle.

  • What you see won't be yourself reversed,

  • but how you look in real life.

  • So who would you say you are really?

  • Is it how you look?

  • Or is it how you dress?

  • Or are you the atoms that make you up?

  • Because all of those things change throughout your life.

  • Ah, maybe the real common thread,

  • that which doesn't change,

  • is your history,

  • your memory.

  • But what if we remember things differently

  • from the way they actually happened.

  • Does that mean we don't know ourselves?

  • False memories are

  • frighteningly easy to create.

  • Today, we're gonna make some,

  • and we're gonna have a little fun doing it.

  • We have created a fake game show

  • called "Who You Were."

  • We're gonna bring contestants down memory lane

  • and have them tell us about their past.

  • Some of which we're going to completely make up.

  • We're gonna plant a few little seeds in this mind field

  • and see if we can grow

  • some fake memories.

  • [cheers and applause]

  • Hi, I'm Michael Stevens,

  • and welcome to the show

  • that takes you on a trip down memory lane

  • from who you are

  • all the way back through...

  • "Who You Were."

  • Please welcome today's very special guest,

  • Timothy DeLaGhetto. - How's it going, man.

  • - Thanks for coming in. - Thanks for having me.

  • - Excited to kinda dive into some memories?

  • - Yeah, I don't really know what to expect.

  • - To begin, though, let's give the audience

  • a taste of your life.

  • - Oh, my God, let's take a look.

  • - So Tim was raised in California

  • where he and his parents owned and operated

  • a Thai food restaurant. - [laughing]

  • - Tim found popularity as a rapper,

  • comedian, actor, and Internet personality,

  • and has attracted over 3 million subscribers.

  • In order to--to kind of see how you became who you are today

  • let's go back to who you were. - Let's do it.

  • - We spoke to your parents... - Mm-hmm.

  • - And they told us some of their favorite memories

  • from when you were very, very young.

  • - Okay. - I'm going to start

  • with some true stories

  • before I slip in the false memory.

  • When you were seven,

  • you were pretty much held prisoner

  • by a very controlling school girl.

  • The girl took control of your life

  • and always wanted to know what you were doing.

  • - I remember her. Like, she was,

  • like, my--my best friend, sort of,

  • but then she was also very, like, possessive of me.

  • - But you guys aren't together still.

  • - No, we might be Facebook friends.

  • - Okay. Here's a memory.

  • You weren't a crybaby on the first day of school...

  • - Yeah. - Until you noticed that

  • all the other kids were crying and then you joined in.

  • - You know, I empathize with people...

  • - Right. - And, uh, I was just kind of,

  • like, helping them feel like we were all a team.

  • - Now here's the fake story

  • we made up out of thin air.

  • Here's another memory. - Mm-hmm.

  • - When you were about four or five years old...

  • - Mm-kay. - You actually took a ride

  • in a hot air balloon, but you dropped something

  • from the balloon.

  • - I don't remember that at all. [laughs]

  • - Really? - Yeah, like, at all.

  • - We're going deep--far back. - I didn't even know

  • I've ever been in a hot air balloon

  • until you just reminded me. - It was in Echo Park.

  • - Was it? - Yeah.

  • - No clue.

  • - Timothy is not accepting the story as truth yet.

  • Time for our second subject.

  • [xylophone trills] [upbeat music]

  • - Dylan, how are you? - I'm doing great, man.

  • - You were, uh, inseparable

  • from you Superman cape when you were young.

  • Once, you even tried to use your super powers

  • to stop a car driving down the street.

  • - Yeah, try to stop a car, like, with my--with my hand

  • and everything. - Did you succeed?

  • - You know, the dude hit his brakes.

  • - Okay, next memory.

  • So when you were about four or five years old,

  • you took a ride in a hot air balloon

  • and you dropped something.

  • - Huh.

  • Uh...

  • I'm not sure if I remember that to be honest.

  • - Sometimes enriching the false story

  • with a realistic detail can trigger the brain

  • to begin filling in the memory. Here goes.

  • Did you have a favorite toy or anything

  • that maybe you had brought?

  • - Oh, I mean, I had, like, some action figures, I think.

  • Um, I do remember, like, losing one.

  • I'm not sure, like--that was, like, the--what happened.

  • If I, uh, was in a hot air balloon.

  • That's a crazy adventure

  • if I actually, like, did something like that.

  • - Hi, Victoria.

  • When you were around four or five years old,

  • you took a ride in a hot air balloon

  • and you dropped something.

  • - I don't remember that. - Four or five years old?

  • Up in the air? - No.

  • - How many times you been in a hot air balloon?

  • - None.

  • - Of course none of the subjects

  • remember the balloon ride.

  • It never happened,

  • but we are not done with them yet.

  • 24 hours from now,

  • we'll take our subjects to Echo Park...

  • - Okay.

  • - The site of their supposed childhood balloon ride,

  • to see if any of the seeds I planted today

  • have taken root.

  • This is where you took your first hot air balloon ride.

  • - Are you serious? - I'm serious.

  • [soft dramatic music]

  • We might not be able

  • to remember our past accurately all the time,

  • but at least we have direct insight

  • into our own mental states.

  • We know how we feel,

  • what we like,

  • and why.

  • Except we don't.

  • Psychologists call our tendency to overvalue

  • how we explain our own behavior

  • while distrusting that other people

  • truly understand their own...

  • An interesting manifestation of this bias

  • is something called...

  • It is surprisingly easy

  • to fool someone into believing

  • they made a choice that they never did,

  • and the amazing thing is that

  • they'll also defend that fake choice

  • as if it were what they had always wanted.

  • [film reel humming]

  • We feel like we know ourselves pretty well.

  • We know why we like the things we like.

  • We know why we decided to do the things that we did.

  • But do we?

  • [dramatic music]

  • Today, we'll be showing our subjects sets of photos

  • and asking them to choose the photo

  • of the person they'd prefer to work with.

  • But this isn't exactly what it looks like.

  • The focus tester

  • is actually a magician

  • who will be using slight of hand

  • to swap some of the faces they choose

  • for faces they've rejected.

  • Will they catch the trick?

  • Or will they justify and explain a decision

  • they never actually made?

  • - Thank you for participating in this study

  • of first impressions in the workplace.

  • You will be shown sets of faces and be asked to select

  • which person you would prefer to work with.

  • Are you ready to begin? - I am, yes.

  • - Cool. So would you rather

  • work with person "A" or person B?

  • - Person B. - Person B.

  • [soft dramatic music]

  • That's as complex as it gets. - [laughs]

  • I can do this. - Person "A" or Person B?

  • - Uh, B.

  • B.

  • "A."

  • B.

  • "A." - Perfect.

  • So we've made a pile of your ideal workplace colleagues.

  • Effectively. - Okay.

  • - Uh, now part two is to--

  • if you could fill out the "women in the workplace"

  • segment of the questionnaire.

  • - All of this business about filling out a survey,

  • it's just to distract them from what's about to happen

  • because our magician is gonna make a swap.

  • There it is.

  • Two of the eight photos have been swapped out

  • for pictures our subject rejected.

  • What will she say when presented

  • with photos of people she didn't actually choose?

  • - Now, on their own merits, I wanna ask you

  • what it was about them that made you pick them.

  • - Okay. - We'll start with a picture

  • that she did pick before we slip in the rejects.

  • - So why did you want to work with this person?

  • - She looks nice. She looks really nice,

  • but I think the person I compared her to

  • didn't look very friendly. - Gotcha.

  • - Here's another pair of photos

  • where she had a clear preference.

  • - Person B. - Person B.

  • - Now we're going to show her

  • the picture she actually rejected.

  • - Why did you want to work with this person.

  • - Um, she just looked nicer than the other one.

  • [laughs] - Yeah.

  • - That was one where the other girl

  • didn't look very nice at all.

  • - Is she just misremembering

  • this one choice?

  • How about another photo she rejected?

  • - Why did you prefer to work with this person?

  • - She looks super sweet.

  • - So that was what you were thinking

  • when you chose that--chose her? - Mm-hmm.

  • I feel like she would be one of those girls

  • that would, like, on the birthdays

  • get you the card and... [laughs]

  • She just looks really sweet.

  • - This isn't just simple misremembering.

  • This is fabricating

  • a past that never happened.

  • Will any of our other subjects

  • justify choices that they never made?

  • - Person "A" or Person B?

  • - "A."

  • - Now we'll present him with the photo he rejected.

  • - So why did you choose to work with this person?

  • - She gave off the appearance

  • of a genuine person

  • who would be easy to work with.

  • - People are completely fabricating

  • justifications for things they never even did.

  • I think we could actually up the ante.

  • We've been swapping two of the eight faces,

  • now we'll swap four.

  • Let's see if she justifies

  • the photos that she actually rejected.

  • - I liked her--her look.

  • I like to work with confidant people,

  • so, to me, she looked like a confident person.

  • As a woman, I wanna, like,

  • help other women grow and succeed

  • and give them advice

  • and I gravitated towards that picture

  • because of that reason.

  • She looked like a type of person you could confide in

  • and ask advice and learn from her experiences.

  • So I think she had that type of look.

  • She looks like she might be, like, a wise type of person.

  • She looks confident.

  • So I think that's why I picked her.

  • - She seems so sure of her decisions,

  • but let's give her one last look.

  • - In particular, I'm curious about how you feel

  • about these four.

  • - You know, there's the confidence

  • and, um, kindness, and somebody young.

  • I feel like that would be

  • people I could work with, so...

  • I-I stand by my decisions. - Cool.

  • - Yes...[laughs] - Perfect.

  • - Yes. - The interesting thing

  • about this study... - Okay.

  • - Is they are not actually the ones you chose.

  • - No?

  • - These ones were. - Oh.

  • - They were switched while you were filling in

  • the questionnaire. It's this phenomenon,

  • what's known as choice blindness.

  • If we think we made a choice,

  • we will find a way to justify that choice...

  • - Ah. - Even if we don't know

  • that's what we made. - Okay.

  • I was trying to justify these four...

  • [laughs] 'Cause I forgot

  • that I picked those four. - It's like a debate.

  • Like, no matter what-- what side I was on,

  • I was gonna give reasons for that.

  • I'm, uh, I'm not happy that I did that,

  • but, um, that's the reason why.

  • - You pulled this complete switcheroo on me,

  • and I wasn't even, like, conscious about it.

  • That's scary.

  • ♪ ♪

  • - You may think you know why you do the things you do,

  • but, in a pinch, your mind can replace the truth,

  • that actual past with completely new explanations

  • that you will confidently believe

  • to be exactly what happened.

  • But what if fabricating the past

  • is all you can do?

  • That may be the case for someone with...

  • When you can't remember your life at all,

  • what happens to your sense of self?

  • [dramatic music]

  • ♪ ♪

  • So, Scott, you have

  • retrograde amnesia. - Correct.

  • - Tell me what that is, how it happened.

  • - I walked into a restroom at my office building,

  • but I slipped on an oily substance,

  • and hit the back of my head

  • and suffered, you know--

  • it was, like, four- or five-inch laceration,

  • and that gave me retrograde amnesia,

  • which means everything autobiographical

  • and historical in my life

  • were completely erased. - Erased?

  • - Just like you hit a delete button on a computer.

  • I've forgotten my entire life.

  • I had no idea who my wife was.

  • Her name... my children.

  • It was absolutely horrifying.

  • - Wow.

  • So this happened eight years ago?

  • - Mm-hmm. - What memories did you have?

  • You still knew English.

  • You still knew things like how to ride a bike.

  • That's a totally different kind of memory.

  • both: Right.

  • - Well, when I handed him a toothbrush,

  • he didn't comb his hair with it.

  • He put it in his mouth,

  • but he didn't know what it was called.

  • - And you didn't remember

  • ever using one before? - Correct.

  • - But you didn't have the autobiographical memories

  • that involved toothbrushes, but you knew how to operate it

  • 'cause that's a procedural memory.

  • - Right. - Exactly, exactly.

  • - Wow. - Things like that,

  • you know, are stored in a different part of the brain.

  • - So it was almost like

  • you were--you were born

  • into this person's body you didn't get to choose.

  • You have a name, you have a wife,

  • you have a house, you have a past...

  • - Mm-hmm. - And you have to just accept

  • that all of those are what you've been dealt.

  • - Right, 'cause that's exactly how I felt.

  • Like I stepped into somebody else's life,

  • and...

  • a lot of it I didn't believe.

  • I just couldn't picture that, you know, I flew airplanes

  • or--or was in the NFL.

  • I just--seemed like nothing I would ever do,

  • and a lot of it, you know, she had to prove to me.

  • She put together a whole album full of pictures.

  • She kind of put my life in a chronological order...

  • - Wow. - And that kind of, you know,

  • filled some of the gaps of who I was,

  • and I-I've heard that, you know,

  • you are who you are

  • from the things you've experienced

  • and your memories,

  • and when I hear that,

  • it's like a knife in my heart.

  • 'Cause it's like, "Then who am I?"

  • - So, Scott, when you're asked, "Who are you?"

  • what do you say?

  • - It's hard to answer that question

  • because I haven't figured out who I am.

  • I'm developing every day

  • my personality and who I am,

  • but inside of my brain,

  • I don't know who I am.

  • ♪ ♪

  • - You are the collection of all of your memories.

  • Right? I mean, that's your story.

  • Those are things that happened to you

  • and they're in the past. They can't be changed.

  • But it can be created.

  • [film reel humming]

  • An illuminating Harvard study

  • found numerous examples of seemingly sane people

  • who believed they had recovered memories

  • of past lives and alien abductions,

  • and there's no deceit.

  • These people actually believe

  • that these events occurred.

  • - And I remember I was just literally scared to death.

  • - Once people have decided that a memory is real,

  • the brain can fill in details that never happened.

  • Especially if the clues you're getting

  • or what people are telling you isn't entirely accurate.

  • Leading cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus

  • made that point in a 1996 experiment

  • where she convinced over 25% of the subjects

  • that they had been lost in a shopping mall as a child.

  • Your brain will just take those untruths and run with them

  • and fill in details out of nowhere.

  • Completely changing your personal history.

  • ♪ ♪

  • When we last saw our Who You Were subjects,

  • they did not recall the false memory we planted.

  • When you were about four or five years old...

  • - Mm-kay. - You actually took a ride

  • in a hot air balloon, but you dropped something.

  • - I'm not sure if I remember that to be honest.

  • - You took a ride in a hot air balloon,

  • and you dropped something.

  • - I don't remember that.

  • - We've let the memory sink in over night,

  • and today we're gonna see if physical stimuli

  • will help solidify this story in their minds.

  • Today is all about you... - Mm-hmm.

  • - And a little drive down your memory lane.

  • - [laughs] - This is where

  • you rode over in a hot air balloon.

  • - [laughs] In a hot air balloon?

  • - That's right.

  • - Maybe my parents mistaked me

  • for, like, a--another kid. - Some other kid?

  • - [laughs] - We'll get out and walk around

  • and see what can come back.

  • Let it all soak in,

  • and tell me

  • if anything's coming back to you.

  • - Hmm.

  • I don't know, man. It's not--it's not popping up.

  • - You dropped something... - [breathes deeply]

  • - When you were in this hot air balloon.

  • Will this be the detail that pushes Tim

  • to remember the event?

  • - What could I have dropped?

  • What did I walk around with back then?

  • ♪ ♪

  • - I spent another 15 minutes

  • attempting to kick-start Tim's brain

  • with details of the false balloon story.

  • Has anything come back?

  • ♪ ♪

  • - No. - Hmm.

  • - [laughs]

  • - Tim's brain doesn't seem susceptible

  • to the false memory.

  • Let's check in with our other subjects.

  • This is where you took your hot air balloon ride.

  • - Really? - Yeah.

  • This is Echo Park? - Yeah.

  • - And-- - It was about 15 years ago.

  • - Yeah. - You don't remember any--

  • anything from this. - No.

  • - Of course he doesn't. It never happened.

  • This is where you took your first hot air balloon ride.

  • - This is? - This is it, yeah.

  • - Are you serious? - I'm serious.

  • Does this bring back memories?

  • - Um...

  • ♪ ♪

  • - You don't remember anything from this?

  • - Um...

  • I do remember, like, something as a kid.

  • I-I dropped something.

  • - He dropped something.

  • Now how do you suppose he got that idea?

  • You dropped something.

  • Dylan's mind is gradually taking

  • an idea we planted

  • and adopting it as his own memory detail.

  • - I could have been around here riding my bike,

  • then we took a hot air balloon ride,

  • and possibly dropped a Superman cape.

  • ♪ ♪

  • - For some people,

  • physical sensations can be an effective trigger

  • to bring back real or imaginary memories.

  • What about smells and sounds?

  • - Well, when I was four or five when I was here,

  • I remember it smelling...

  • fresh.

  • - This sensory memory may be a jumping off point

  • to begin accepting the false memory.

  • You remember looking down on the park from above?

  • - I might remember, um...

  • ♪ ♪

  • Being able to overlook the water.

  • Um...

  • I remember, like, standing over and squatting,

  • and, like, just, li--

  • being so happy to be up there

  • and the wind blowing my hair back,

  • and my dad kept telling me to sit down,

  • and I wouldn't sit down. - Yeah, you weren't scared.

  • - [laughs] - How high up were you?

  • - Probably, like...

  • 800 feet.

  • - No kidding. - Yeah.

  • - Wow.

  • Victoria's false memory is beginning to take hold

  • with the help of her imaginative subconscious brain.

  • What do you remember seeing from up in the hot air balloon?

  • - The water fountain, for sure...

  • - Yeah? - And I could have been crazy,

  • but I think that I could have felt,

  • like, almost a little bit of mist hit my skin

  • from the water fountain.

  • - What color was the balloon?

  • - I wanna say it was red.

  • - Red. - Yeah.

  • Let's see if the seed I planted earlier

  • has taken hold.

  • You took a ride in a hot air balloon

  • and you dropped something.

  • - I don't remember that.

  • - You dropped something. - I did.

  • At that age, I was a huge Barney fan...

  • - Ah. - And I just, like, remember

  • just, like--and looking down and him just being gone.

  • - [laughs] About where did it fall do you think?

  • - Um...I would say

  • six or seven blocks away.

  • - Oh, really?

  • So not in the water? - No.

  • - By now, it seems Victoria's brain

  • has turned our suggested memory

  • into a complete childhood experience.

  • - I remember

  • waking up at, like,

  • 9:00 in the morning,

  • getting in the car,

  • and then my mom and I being in the car

  • having no idea where we were going

  • 'cause he loved to do that.

  • Just put the family in the car

  • and just go somewhere, and just, like, surprise us.

  • - Victoria is personalizing this false memory

  • by merging it with pleasant details

  • from her childhood.

  • - And next thing you know, like, we're just, like, flying over,

  • like, the whole, like, greater Los Angeles area.

  • - So who do you think was in the basket with you?

  • - Well, definitely both my parents.

  • I know we got something to eat afterwards.

  • Almost I wanna say, like, a churro or something like that.

  • - Post-balloon churro. - Yeah.

  • [laughs] Yeah. - It's a classic.

  • - Now that our subjects are convinced

  • that the balloon ride happened...

  • - [laughs] - Oh, shit.

  • - It's time for a reality check.

  • Tell your mom, uh, the memory.

  • - We went, like, on a hot air balloon ride,

  • and I dropped, I think, my Superman cape.

  • Why you looking like that? - [laughing]

  • No, Dylan. That never happened.

  • That never happened.

  • - Wait, what? - There was never

  • a balloon ride.

  • - We made the whole story up.

  • Well, you made most of it up.

  • - Oh, wow. - But isn't that amazing?

  • Because, remember, we planted that story.

  • - No, that is. That's actually really crazy.

  • I-I was actually having these--

  • these, like, weird, faint memories

  • of me, like, looking over, like the pond,

  • and, like, you know-- I don't even know.

  • - Has Dylan been to Echo Park before?

  • - Oh, wow. - And now it's Victoria's turn

  • for a rude awakening from her father.

  • - Hi. - The story is not true.

  • - What?

  • - You've never been in a hot air balloon.

  • - What're you guys talking about?

  • Why would you make that up? - Did you truly believe

  • that you'd been in a hot air balloon?

  • - Yes.

  • - You remembered so many details...

  • - Yes. - Of something

  • that never happened. - Yes.

  • - How many times you been in a hot air balloon?

  • - None.

  • - So what were you remembering?

  • - I'm not entirely sure

  • because I really do feel like I have a memory.

  • - We all are susceptible to this.

  • - I really felt like I had experienced that experience.

  • - And what about our YouTuber, Tim?

  • - Well, Tim, I'll tell you what. It's not surprising

  • that you don't remember anything from it.

  • - Mm-hmm. - 'Cause it never happened.

  • - I knew it. [laughing]

  • I was like, "Dude..."

  • - Tim wasn't susceptible.

  • But false memories are common

  • and can have real-world implications.

  • The innocence Project of the United States claims

  • that faulty eye-witness memories

  • account for 72% of convictions

  • overturned by DNA evidence.

  • ♪ ♪

  • So who are you?

  • Well, how could you be any one thing?

  • You are always changing.

  • If you can lose track of your past,

  • and your memories can be altered

  • or implanted,

  • in the end, who are you really?

  • Maybe... you're the stories

  • you're telling yourself,

  • and as always,

  • thanks for watching.

  • [electronic music]

  • ♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

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