Study shows scammers we remember better

Scammers are better remembered
German researchers have found in a study that people can better recognize cheaters or other persons who show "misconduct beyond the norm". Accordingly, we not only remember the face more easily, but also the story associated with it.

"I remember that!"
When other people gain an undeserved advantage by their own means, perhaps at the expense of themselves, one often thinks, "I remember that!" And indeed, our memory stores these people especially well, at least if they are our own Belong to the group, as psychologists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena have now found out.

According to a new study, we can better remember people who are cheating, for example by copying off or moving forward. Not just the face, but also the story. (Image: gradt / fotolia.com)

We better remember uncooperative individuals
"People remember better uncooperative individuals than cooperative ones. We suspect that this is particularly the case when uncooperative individuals belong to their own group because their behavior violates positive expectations, "the researchers write in the journal" Cognition "..

Dr. Stefanie Hechler, who together with her colleague Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Kessler and Prof. Dr. med. Franz Neyer has worked on the new studies that have produced the results, said in a press release: "If we observe people who show off-the-norm abuses - such as cheating - then we remember them very well because they acted differently have as we expect. "

"These are combined memories, as colleagues from Dusseldorf found out. This means that we not only remember the person's face, but also the story associated with it, "says the expert. After all, it was better not only to find out at the next meeting that he had seen him once, but also that he had acted uncooperatively at that time.

Interact with people of your own group
"This social functionality only occurs, however, if I put the corresponding person in the same group as myself, ie a group of people to whom I attribute a certain category - such as the employees of a company, the seminar group of a university or, more broadly speaking, about the inhabitants of a country, "said Hechler.

"We usually divide our social environment into such groups to better structure them. So we also interact with people in our own group. "

Identification with the group
The Jena psychologists told the subjects in an experiment that they were part of a fictitious and new group, without pointing out that this has a specific meaning. The participants nevertheless identified with their group, which at the same time led to a differentiation from another group.

After the scientists showed them different people with background information, it turned out that they had focused on their co-members. Those from their own group, who had been noticed by misconduct, had thus been particularly impressed on the subjects.

However, this did not apply to the persons from the outgroup, who also had distinguished themselves through uncooperative behavior.

Action against the norm is stored particularly well
"It turns out, then, that even such basic processes as memory processes, which we rather unconsciously control, are influenced by social categorizations," said Hechler. "We save acting against the norm as a threat to the group - and thus the one who is responsible."

However, it also became apparent that the participants generally rated their own group as more positive than a group of strangers, even though they were able to remember the fraudsters very well. (Ad)