I guarantee you at least one thing that you believe occurred in your life didn’t happen. Or it didn’t happen close to the way you think it did or when. Maybe it’s a piece of a rationalization or dust from a dream that you came to accept as the real thing. And the more times you recall it, the more it becomes a part of your memory’s bedrock, the more “real” it seems. Usually these small malfunctions mean little. But sometimes they can have profound effects.

Elizabeth Loftus, who studies false memories, in a recent TED address.