Are memories reliable? Expert explains how they change more than we realise

Storytellers form a different memory of a story they are reciting, due to mutation in how differently it is told to audiences each time, and how much of an artistic licence is used to change certain details of the story.

Over time the changed or mutated story seems like the original one in the storyteller's mind, something known as the Audience-Tuning Effect.

Social experiments show that people in general are stubborn about the accuracy of their memories, which may have mutated or even changed beyond recognition.

So many tiny, false details have been added to the original memory over time, that one theory says that the mere act of recalling a certain memory takes it out of the ‘freezer’ and puts it back, changing its shape and form a bit.

The result is that it is highly unlikely that our treasured memories are completely accurate.