Suggestibility

The charge

Suggestibility is the tendency for memory to be altered by leading questions, social cues, or post-event information. People can absorb suggestions and later remember them as if they were part of the original event.

How it operates

When recalling an event, the brain integrates stored traces with current cues. Leading prompts can supply details that get encoded during retrieval itself, especially when the original memory is incomplete.

Logged incidents

1. Incident 01

   A manager asks, 'When the customer complained about pricing, what did they say?' and the team later remembers a complaint that never happened.

2. Incident 02

   A recruiter says, 'You noticed how unprepared the candidate seemed, right?' which nudges other interviewers to encode that framing into memory.

3. Incident 03

   After a board member describes a launch as chaotic, others start recalling neutral moments as evidence of chaos.

What to watch for

Pay attention when your memory becomes more detailed after someone else's question or summary. Ask: "Would I remember this detail if nobody had suggested it?"