False memory or false memory is a psychological phenomenon in which a person remembers things that did not actually happen. False memory is often considered in legal cases regarding child sexual abuse. The phenomenon was first discussed by Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud. Much of the work in proving it has been attributed to Elizabeth Loftus, since she first published a research project on the issue in 1974. False memory syndrome is a distinct syndrome from false memory in that it affects a person's daily life. False memories do not fundamentally affect a person's life. False memory syndrome occurs because a person believes that the memory is true. However, research differs on whether false memory syndrome is a mental disorder, and it has therefore also been excluded from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. False memory syndrome is an important part of psychological research because of its associations with a wide range of mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder. False memory syndrome is one of the unfortunate outcomes of pseudoscience approaches to psychotherapy. The academic literature describes false memories as having the same characteristics as other memories, so that we cannot distinguish false memories from real memories that actually happened. But there is a way to check them, which is to look for supporting evidence for any memory you want to check. Some people are more likely to generate false memories than others. These are people with low IQs, children and adolescents, as well as people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, which make it difficult for them to engage with reality. Basically, anyone who has difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy is more likely to generate false memories. However, in a study conducted by Julia Shaw on “non-pathological” adults, she found that there were no differences in the personality of people who did not generate false memories compared to those who did. The participants in the study were subjected to several tests on several levels, including: exposure to fantasy matters, compliance, personality, as well as tests for gender, age, and education level, and she found no differences. This does not mean that there are no weaknesses, which may exist. It is certainly possible for anyone to have false memories. The implications of false memory research for the criminal justice system are enormous. It has cast doubt on the memories of suspects, victims, witnesses, and even police officers and lawyers. Memories are now invalidating many cases. It has shown that we cannot rely on them because they are inherently unreliable. It calls into question the very basis of evidence used in criminal trials. It suggests that someone may have been convicted of a crime on the basis of evidence that requires reliance solely on memory. It also shows the weaknesses of techniques that can help generate false memories, and it forces us to rethink police practice. False memory is a psychological phenomenon where a person remembers things that did not actually happen. There are some similar false memories that are sometimes shared by multiple people. For example, a fairly common false memory is that the name of the bear's name was spelled Bernstein. Another reported example is the widespread false memory of the 1990 film Shazam starring the comedian Sinbad as a genie. These false memories may be the product of a confluence of factors, such as the performer wearing a genie costume during a 1994 television screening of Sinbad the Sailor, as well as the 1996 film Kazaam featuring a genie played by Shaquille O'Neal. A 2010 study examined people who were familiar with the clock at Bologna Centrale railway station, which was damaged in the 1980 Bologna massacre. In the study, 92% falsely remembered that the clock had been stopped since the bombing; in fact, the clock was repaired shortly after the attack but stopped again 16 years later as a symbolic celebration. In 2010, this phenomenon of collective false memory was dubbed the "Mandela Effect" by self-described paranormal consultant Fiona Broome, referring to a false memory she said was of South African leader Nelson Mandela's death in the 1980s but which she claims is shared by "probably thousands" of others. Broome has speculated about alternative facts as an explanation, but most commentators suggest that these are instead examples of false memories formed by similar factors affecting multiple people, such as social reinforcement of incorrect memories, or false news reports and misleading images influencing the formation of memories based on them.