Registered report : Stage 1

Imagination inflation happens when a person’s subjective confidence that an event has occurred increases after they imagine it occurring. In this project, our primary aim is to test whether memory distrust is related to the imagination inflation effect in people who are aware of the discrepancies between their own memories and what they have imagined. Our secondary purpose is to investigate whether the influence of memory distrust on imagination inflation is moderated by traits that are described as disengagement from reality and to test whether memory distrust mediates the relationship between self-esteem and imagination inflation. In a three-step procedure, participants (N = 300) will assess their confidence that a list of childhood events happened to them; then, they will imagine three of these events and reassess their confidence. Half of the participants will undergo a memory distrust induction procedure. In order to sensitize participants to discrepancies, some of them will be given cues about the source and/or perspective of the imagined events.