The Impact of Memory on Collective Events

The case of the stopped clock in Bologna highlights how memory can be influenced by shared narratives. After a tragic bombing in 1980, the clock, stopped at 10:25, became a powerful symbol, leading many to misremember whether it had ever resumed functioning. This phenomenon illustrates that collective memories can overshadow factual details, where individuals tend to align their recollections with the dominant stories in their communities. Such memory biases also appear in smaller interactions, like friends disputing school-related incidents, emphasizing the malleability of human memory.