Between the time of the alleged UVA attack (2012) and the reporting of the story this year, Loftus said, "You could certainly expect memory to fade, to potentially be contaminated, even if not from external suggestion."
Trauma memories — like a brutal rape — can be stored differently, perhaps erroneously. But that's no different from regular memories, Loftus added.
As Vox's Libby Nelson points out, there were reasons Rolling Stone reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, didn't want to pry too much into Jackie's horrendous assault. "[She] seems to have thought she was respecting Jackie's boundaries by not interviewing her alleged rapists. She has said that Jackie asked her not to reach out to the supposed assailant, and Erdely says she complied."
But perhaps, if Erdely thought more about the tricks memory plays, she would have worked harder to verify the facts — no matter how sensitive. If you understand that memory is a foggy patchwork or synthesis of events and exposures in our lives — and some memories aren't real — you would probably hesitate before relying solely on a person's memory.
"It’s very compelling to believe someone's memory," said Loftus, "especially when they cry. But I've seen people cry over false memories, as well as over real ones."