Real Memories or Spin?

Sadly in the world today there is so much untruth that even when it is obvious that something is unlikely to be true, many still believe it without questioning.

This should not come as a surprise in a world of spin-doctors, public relations consultants and and marketers, all whose job it is to convince the rest of us that what we are hearing is in fact the truth. Or as they may say ‘a believable truth.’ There are many books on the subject, even one called “All Marketers Are Liars.”

Research into the ‘politician-speak’ has shown that when the words “Trust me” are used an untruth is most likely. Such instants are not referred to as a lie, but termed as ‘a distortion of the truth.’ The expression ‘weasel words’ is often used today, these are phrases designed to sound authoritative but in fact lack content and true meaning. Sadly these modern day traits are becoming more and more apparent in the sporting world as governing bodies censure players, coaches, and the media, and fans end up with trite, bland cliched sound bytes which are boring in the main and often irrelevant.

At the weekend there was a prime example of PR spin. In order to tap into a topic that was receiving a great deal of media coverage, an anniversary of a key sporting moment, one prominent athlete was reported as saying that they remembered the event and hoped to replicate it in their career. The writer in question lapped up the comment without giving any consideration to the veracity of it. Possibly because it made a good story and would clearly make a good headline, or maybe out of simple sycophancy.

While the truth of the claim made in the story is possible it is unlikely. As the athlete in question only turned seven years of age just fifteen days before the event happened.

Research into childhood memories has show that many of our memories are unreliable, or have been influenced by what we have been told. So the situation may not have been a result of a player agent telling a client what to say to keep them in the news, it could well have simply been a case of the athlete believing that they remembered that event because they have been told so much about it and seen replays of it so many times.

Catherine Loveday, an expert in autobiographical memory at the University of Westminster told the BBC last year that “While infants can make memories, they are not long-lasting.” This was explained in the same article as being because ‘the flurry of new cells forming in the brains of young children are thought to disrupt the connections needed to store information long-term. It’s why most of us have few memories of our childhood by the time we are adults.’

Other studies have revealed that a form of “childhood amnesia” happens in most children once we reach the age of seven years old. The study found that maternal conversations had a huge impact on the amount of information children later reported about their early-life events. In other words their mothers played a big part in what they thought that they remembered.

Interestingly in one study they found that very young children did have the capacity to remember major events, such as moving house and in some cases a wedding, as these were events seen as confronting or magical. They were events that were outside of the ordinary

So were these reported comments believable? How much can you remember in your life when you just turned seven years old? If you do have memories of that time how many of those memories relate to a sporting event, let alone an international sporting event?

In defence of the athlete in question this writer remembers Wimbledon and the World Cup of 1970; although not any specific games. However the only reason for this is because his parents had just bought their first colour television and that seemed to be all that was showing. These were the first two sporting events I ever saw in colour, as at that age I still had not been taken to my first live event.

So despite making a great story, how believable was it that a child that had just turned seven a fortnight earlier could have such clear and vivid memories of not only the event but the impact of it?

Maybe the poet TS Elliot summed it up best when he wrote, “what is actual is actual only for one time and only for one place.”