Inspired by [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/g2csg5/what_fact_is_ignored_generously/fnlesbi?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) comment by u/squigs, I came here to ask you: Why we can’t remember details of things and, in most of the times, we make up things to fill the gaps on our memory.
Why does our brain do this?
In: Biology
Our brain isn’t like a database. For most people and most events, you don’t remember the exact details but rather a collection of memory fragments. When you recall a memory, your brain pieces these fragments back together to recreate the memory. Also, our brain loves patterns as it saves time learning each and every new thing when instead you can just fit new information as generalizations into some schema you’ve already learned.
These generalizations allows us to do a few things. You can imagine things you’ve never seen which can be fun when daydreaming or acting. But it also has some drawbacks in that we can be influenced to mix memories with imagination in ways that we really believe the memory to be authentic. Perhaps a sibling and you are recalling memories and your sibling injects some detail that wasn’t accurate. But if the injection was believable to you, you may very well reconstruct your memory in a way that adds the faulty details, believing it to be true. Or a more sinister example would be of people gaslighting, causing a person to doubt their own memories and work in details fabricated by the manipulative person. Or it can be self-inflicted, telling yourself that something is or is not true over and over, looking for any evidence to support your desired belief and ignoring anything to the contrary until you really believe it.
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