Elizabeth Loftus

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Elizabeth Loftus was born Elizabeth Fishman on October 16, 1944, and grew up in a Jewish family in Bel Air, California. Her father was a doctor and her mother a librarian; her mother drowned when Loftus was 14. She earned a Bachelors degree in mathematics and psychology from UCLA in 1966, followed by a PhD in mathematical psychology from Stanford in 1970, with a thesis on 'An Analysis of the Structural Variables That Determine Problem-Solving Difficulty on a Computer-Based Teletype.' From 1970 to 1973 she worked at the New School for Social Research, then joined the University of Washington from 1973 to 2001, shifting from laboratory work to real-world criminal court cases. Her early experiment on car crashes showed that mean speed estimates were 32 mph for 'collided,' 34 mph for 'hit each other,' and 41 mph for 'smashed each other,' leading her to conclude that post-event questioning can cause a reconstruction of memory. In 1990, she testified in the George Franklin murder trial, arguing that the daughter's recovered memory was false, though the prosecutor forced her to admit she had never studied memories of one's own father. In 1991, she was deemed an honorary fellow of the British Psychological Society. The 'lost in the mall' technique was developed by her undergraduate student Jim Coan, and a similar experiment by Loftus found that 25% of subjects believed a false event. A later study with 332 students found approximately one third accepted a false story about having their ear licked by a drug-addled Pluto character at Disneyland. After publishing her 1994 book The Myth of Repressed Memory, she received death threats. In the Jane Doe case that began in 1997, Loftus and Melvin J. Guyer revealed serious concerns about the background and validity of the initial research; the University of Washington investigated her for 21 months but cleared her of breaking research protocols. In 2001, she left the University of Washington and joined the University of California, Irvine, as a distinguished professor. In 2002, she was ranked 58th in the Review of General Psychology's list of the 100 most influential psychological researchers of the 20th century. In 2003, she received the award for Distinguished Scientific Applications of Psychology from the APA and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Reader's Guide

Elizabeth Loftus's significance lies in her systematic demonstration that memory can be altered by suggestion, misinformation, and phrasing. Her findings have profound implications for the legal system, where eyewitness testimony is often treated as reliable. By showing that false memories can be implanted—as in the 'lost in the mall' and Disneyland Pluto studies—she challenged the validity of recovered memory therapies and influenced court rulings on the admissibility of such testimony. Her work has also sparked ethical debates about research methods and the generalization of laboratory findings to clinical settings. Despite controversy and personal threats, Loftus's research has shaped modern understanding of memory's malleability and continues to inform both psychology and law.

Did You Know?

• Loftus's first experiment on car crashes showed that mean speed estimates varied from 32 mph to 41 mph depending on whether the question used 'collided,' 'hit each other,' or 'smashed each other.'
• Her undergraduate student Jim Coan developed the 'lost in the mall' technique, in which a younger brother was given three true stories and one false story about being lost in a mall—and he believed all of them.
• In a later study with 332 undergraduate students, approximately one third accepted as true a false story about having their ear licked by a drug-addled Pluto character at Disneyland.
• After publishing her 1994 book The Myth of Repressed Memory, Loftus received death threats and armed guards accompanied her at lectures.
• In the 1990 George Franklin trial, the prosecutor forced Loftus to admit that her research had never studied memories of one's own father, and that it was not proven that memories could be wholly invented rather than altered.

Academic Roots and the Pivot to Real-World Psychology

Born Elizabeth Fishman on October 16, 1944, Loftus grew up in a Jewish family in Bel Air, California. Her father was a doctor and her mother a librarian; her mother drowned when Loftus was 14. She earned a Bachelors degree in mathematics and psychology from UCLA in 1966, followed by a PhD in mathematical psychology from Stanford in 1970, with a thesis on 'An Analysis of the Structural Variables That Determine Problem-Solving Difficulty on a Computer-Based Teletype.' From 1970 to 1973, she was employed as a cognitive psychologist at the New School for Social Research in New York City, after becoming dissatisfied with university work such as calibrating math and word problems for fifth-grade students. At the time, she had also been investigating semantic memory with Professor Jonathan Freedman at Stanford University. She then joined the University of Washington from 1973 to 2001, initially as an assistant professor, and shifted from laboratory work to using 'real world' situations of criminal court cases.

The Misinformation Effect and Landmark Experiments

Loftus's first experiment on car crashes involved showing 45 students videos of car crashes and then asking them to estimate the speed of the car. Her findings were that the mean estimates of the speeds were 32 mph when the question was phrased as the speed that the cars 'collided,' 34 mph when phrased as 'hit each other,' and 41 mph when phrased as 'smashed each other.' She concluded that 'these results are consistent with the view that the questions asked subsequent to an event can cause a reconstruction in one's memory of that event.' Around this time, the United States Department of Transportation was offering funding for research into car crashes. Her undergraduate student Jim Coan developed the 'lost in the mall' technique, involving giving his younger brother three true stories plus a false story about being lost in a mall; the younger brother believed all stories and provided further details. A similar experiment by Loftus found that 25% of subjects believed a never-happened event. A later study involving 332 undergraduate students who received course credit found that approximately one third accepted as true a false story about having their ear licked by a drug-addled Pluto character during a childhood visit to Disneyland.

Expert Testimony and the Courtroom

In 1974, Loftus published two articles with observations about conflicting eyewitness accounts in a particular murder trial and about the reliability of witness testimony in general. This resulted in several lawyers contacting her about current cases, beginning her career of paid work providing advice to lawyers. Early attempts for Loftus to act as an expert witness were deemed inadmissible by judges, but in June 1975 she presented the first expert witness testimony in Washington State on the topic of eyewitness identification. Over her career she provided expert testimony or consultation for lawyers in over 300 court cases, including for the legal teams of Ghislaine Maxwell, Harvey Weinstein, Ted Bundy, O. J. Simpson, Angelo Buono, and Robert Durst. In the 1990 George Franklin murder trial, the defense attorney employed Loftus to provide expert testimony that the daughter's recovered memory was false. Loftus referred to an experiment where people mixed up events from a video with an incorrect television news report. However, the prosecutor forced Loftus to admit that she had never studied memories like those of Franklin's daughter—her studies found that people could misidentify random perpetrators, not that they could mistakenly accuse their own fathers, and it was not proven that memories could be wholly invented rather than altered. Franklin was convicted, though the conviction was later overturned on appeal and the prosecution declined to retry.

Challenging Recovered Memory and Broader Legacy

In 1991, several high-profile court cases of people having recovered memories of having been molested by their parents gained Loftus's attention. She read through several then-current psychology books, including The Courage to Heal, which instructed women and therapists in methods of recovering 'lost' memories of sexual abuse and urged therapists to query their clients about childhood incest. In the 1997 Jane Doe case, Loftus and Melvin J. Guyer revealed serious concerns about the background and validity of the initial research. Jane contacted the University of Washington and accused Loftus of breaching her privacy; the university put Loftus under investigation, confiscating her files for 21 months, during which she was not allowed to share her findings. The university cleared Loftus of breaking research protocols, and Loftus and Guyer published their findings in 2002. She has written many books, including The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories & Allegations of Sexual Abuse and Witness for the Defense. She has served on the executive council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and was a keynote speaker at the British Psychological Society's 2011 annual conference. In 1991, she was deemed an honorary fellow of the British Psychological Society. Following the publication of her studies, armed guards accompanied Loftus at lectures, and she received death threats after the publication of her 1994 book The Myth of Repressed Memory.