The textbook, Cognitive Psychology by E. Bruce Goldstein defines the misinformation effect as, “Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how the person describes that event later” (Goldstein, 222). It is evident to see that in everyday life, examples of the misinformation effect surround us. This is eminent on social media platforms from Twitter and Facebook, to even major news outlets such as CNN and ABC News as well. Topics on the docket of discussion include the general concepts about misinformation on social media, and a more specific example, which is the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris, France.

On social media, it is often difficult to get verified correct information from an established credible source. Even then, the information provided by such a source can be plagued by misinformation. Just over one year since the terrorist attack in Paris, which left the entire earth shaken, I stumbled across an article by the Huffington Post on Facebook, remembering the events that took place November 15, 2016. I then came across an in the way related article posted by the Huffington Post about the connection between the attack in Paris and the one in Nice. Now, of course, I realized that things that the Huffington Post and such websites post need to be taken with a grain of salt, but I came across something that caught my attention. What caught my attention was an image of a Canadian Sikh man and freelance writer, Veerender Jubbal. The image was a side-by-side picture, which I will include, of Jubbal standing in front of a mirror taking a picture on his iPad on one side of the image, and on the other end of the image is the same “mirror picture” but the iPad he was once holding is now the Qur’an, and he is wearing a suicide bomb vest. The image of Jubbal in the vest, holding the Qur’an, originally began circling social media days after the terrorist attack in Paris and began circling once more after the attack in Nice. Although the accusation was debunked after the Paris attack, people still fell victim to believing that this was one of the terrorists in charge of the Nice attack.

The image of Jubbal is just one example of misinformation that surrounded the terrorist attack in Paris, France. Another example of misinformation relating to the terrorist attack is the video clip posted by a social media user of the Eiffel Tower turning off its lights following the attack as an act of solidarity. The original post went viral then after until it was later revealed that the Eiffel Towers lights turn off after 1 am every day. Another example of misinformation is an image of what appears to be a march in Germany of supporters standing with Paris. This, in fact, was not the case, the march was an anti-immigration march, and the image was purposely cropped by the original poster to hide signs and banners that were carried by the protestors.

Going back to the image of Veerender Jubbal, there have been several eyewitness accounts of individuals that were both at the locations of the attack or came into contact with the suspected terrorists beforehand. Julien Pierce, who was inside the Bataclan concert hall, stated he saw two to three unmasked very young men fire at random into the crowd of people. Another account was provided by a man with the last name Hill, who was at an ATM yards from the Bataclan, stated he saw a heavyset Caucasian-looking male shouting, “Allez!” who at first appeared to be directing people out of the street, but then thought he might be one of the suspected men involved in the attack. What changed Hill’s testimony, we cannot be sure. These are some of the real testimonies of individuals who were there, but these people’s testimony was overlooked when the image of Jubbal flooded social media days following the attack. The question, why the testimonies were overlooked, still stands. Jubbal is not a Caucasian male, nor does he appear to be “very” young.

An experiment done by Elizabeth Loftus on misleading postevent information (MPI) can help shed some light on the case of the image of Jubbal. Loftus had her participants look at slides of a car stopped at a stop sign and then proceeds to turn the corner and hits a pedestrian. Loftus replaced the words “stop sign” with “yield sign” in the question, “Did another car pass the red car while it was stopped at the stop sign?”, for the MPI group of the experiment. What she found was that there was a high probability that the participants in the MPI group would state they saw a yield sign rather than the actual stop sign in the slides. This can be considered in the case of originally published eyewitness testimony of the attacks in Paris and the image of Jubbal. Perhaps, individuals who had originally read the descriptions of the assailants provided by Hill and Pierce, but then came across the image of Jubbal in the suicide bomb vest were more inclined to believe Jubbal was a suspect based on the nature of the image.

Overall, the relationship between the misinformation effect and this real-life example of misinformation in social media is clear. The individuals who read the eyewitness accounts had an alteration of what they believed those witnesses saw, and their overall conclusion of the attacks. This real-life example of the misinformation effect shows that false memories, even though they are not the memories of the key witnesses, can be altered by suggestion.

Gilbert, B. (2015). GamerGate Supporters Tried to Turn One of Their Biggest Critics Into a Paris Terrorist Suspect. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/veerender-jubbal-photoshopped-by-gamergate-supporters-2015-11

Goldstein, E. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning.

Hopkins, S. (2016). Nice Attack Blamed On Sikh Man Veerender Jubbal Who Was Also Wrongly Accused of Paris Massacre. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nice-attack-blamed-on-sikh-man-veerender-jubba-who-was-also-wrongly-accused-of-paris-attacks_uk_5788d9a6e4b08078d6e89e5a

Whitten, S. (2015). Misinformation Spreads on Social Media Following Paris Attacks. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/misinformation-spreads-social-media-following-paris-attacks-n464291