In the legal field, victims and offenders frequently lie to avoid talking about serious incidents, such as past experiences of sexual abuse or criminal involvement. Although these individuals may initially lie about an experienced event, oftentimes these same people eventually abandon their lies and are forthcoming with what truly happened. To date, it is unclear whether such lying affects later statements about one’s memory for the experienced event. The impetus of the present review is to compile the current state of knowledge on the effects of lying on memory. Based on existing literature, we will describe how deceptive strategies (e.g., false denials) regarding what is remembered may affect memory in consequential ways, such as forgetting of details, falsely remembering features that were not present, or a combination of both. It will be argued that the current literature suggests that mnemonic outcome is contingent on the type of lie and we will propose a theoretical framework outlining which forms of lying likely result in certain memory outcomes. Potential avenues of future research also will be discussed.
Explanation: Notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, who was charged and convicted with several kidnappings, rapes, and gruesome murders in the United States during the 1970s, originally denied involvement in the crimes throughout his trials that spanned over a decade due to escapes and additional crimes. But, before his execution in the late 1980s, Bundy decided to confess to several of the murders he was convicted of as well as others unknown to the police (see Carlisle, 2014 for overview). A pertinent issue is how Bundy’s denials for several years affected his memory for the actual details of the crimes. This issue will be the key focus of the present review paper in which we will discuss the effects of lying on memory.
