But if traumatic experiences could be falsely planted, then researchers began wondering if they could seed false memories to trigger helpful, rather than harmful responses. “After decades of studying the creation of false memories, a few years ago we started to ask what are the repercussions,” says Elizabeth Loftus, professor of psychology at the University of California in Irvine. “If I plant a false memory in your mind, does it affect later thoughts, intentions or even behaviors?” …

Loftus wondered if the same would be true for alcohol, and recruited 147 undergraduate psychology students to find out. The volunteers were told that the experiment focused on personality and food and beverage choices. They filled out a long questionnaire about their history with various foods and drinks before age 16, and also answered questions about their experiences related to them, such as “Got sick after drinking too much vodka” or “Felt sick to your stomach after drinking rum.” They were also asked how sure they were that these experiences had actually occurred. …

As Loftus reported in Acta Psychologica, nearly 20% developed false memories, while the rest recognized, at least to some degree, that the implanted experience was indeed incorrect. Those who started drinking at an earlier age were more likely to develop false memories— but the participants were not people with drinking problems, so the finding was likely not due to alcohol-related memory problems.

Most importantly, the planted bad memory of getting sick by a drink also led those who believed it most to reduce, by more than a point on an eight point scale, their preference for that drink.