In the 1970s, Loftus published a series of influential studies about the fallibility of eyewitness testimony. She has been trying to make the implications of her findings known ever since, but only now is her work is beginning to have a real impact. As an expert witness, Loftus has testified on behalf of mass murderers, but that’s the least controversial aspect of her work. Her role in legal cases involving allegations of childhood sexual abuse based on recovered memories has made her the target of lawsuits and death threats, and her research into using false memories to modify behavior is regarded by some as highly unethical. The so-called “memory wars” began in 1990, when Loftus got a call from a lawyer defending George Franklin. Franklin’s daughter accused him of murdering her best friend decades earlier, after apparently recovering long-lost memories of the crime during therapy. “There I was, witnessing the conviction of a man based on nothing more than the claim of a repressed memory.” Intrigued, she scoured the scientific literature and, failing to find any convincing evidence for the claim that traumatic memories can be buried and recovered, testified to that effect in the trial.

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