Psychology
Ask how fast cars were going when they 'smashed', and witnesses invent broken glass
Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer showed people footage of a car accident, then asked how fast the cars were going when they 'smashed', 'collided', 'bumped' or 'hit' each other. The verb alone shifted speed estimates — and a week later, people who'd heard 'smashed' were more likely to falsely recall broken glass that was never in the film. Memory isn't a recording; it's rebuilt each time you retrieve it.