Elizabeth Loftus Case Study

Elizabeth Loftus talked about a restaurant manager named Steve Titus who lived in Seattle, Washington. Steve Titus was 31 years old and engaged to a woman who was the love of his life named Gretchen. The couple had gone out for a romantic meal. On their way home they were pulled over by a police officer. Titus’s car resembled a vehicle that had been seen earlier in the evening. His car resembled that of a man who had raped a female hitchhiker. Titus resembled the rapist. The police took a picture of Titus and showed it to the rape victim. She said that he was the closest to the man she had seen. The police and prosecution proceeded with the trial. When Steve Titus was put on trial for rape, the rape victim had gotten on the stand. She said that she was sure that he was the man who had raped her. Titus was convicted and sent to jail. Titus had completely lost fail in the legal system, but he got an idea. Titus called a local newspaper and had gotten the interest of an investigative journalist. The journalist actually had found the real rapist. The rapist had confessed to the rape and was thought to have committed 50 rapes in that area. When the information was given to the judge, Titus was set free. But it didn’t end there. Steve Titus had lost his job, his fiancée, and his entire savings. Titus filed a lawsuit against the police and others he felt were responsible for his suffering. He had become obsessed with his trial. Days before he was to have his day in court, he woke up in the morning and doubled over in pain. He had died of a stress related heart attack at age
I watched a show last week about a man who was in the exact same position as Steve Titus was. He was a victim of false memory. I think this ted talk is important, because false memory can cause several horrible things to happen to people. People’s lives can be ruined because someone confused a person with the wrong