Doctored Photographs

A 2002 study found that using manipulated photographs that seem to show a childhood version of the adult participants enjoying a hot air balloon ride caused about half of those participants to create complete or partial false-memories.

This study was replicated in late-2022 by a research team that adhered to all the methods and procedures outlined by the first team, but which changed the hot air balloon ride image to that of a Viking ship ride, as the test subjects were from Scandinavian countries and that was a more appropriate cultural equivalent.

This second group found essentially the same thing, that around 40% of test subjects reported complete or partial memories of having gone on a Viking ship ride when they were kids after being shown doctored images of their childhood selves doing so.