What potential downside does hypnosis present regarding memory?

Hypnosis is often employed in therapeutic settings to recover memories or assist in treatment. However, one known downside of hypnosis is that it may lead to the creation of confabulated memories. Confabulation occurs when individuals unintentionally produce distorted or fabricated memories, often filling in gaps with false information that they believe to be true. This phenomenon is particularly prominent in contexts of suggestibility where a hypnotized individual may be more open to external cues, leading them to incorporate false details into their recollection.

Such inaccuracies can compromise the reliability of memories recovered under hypnosis, especially in legal contexts where eyewitness testimony is critical. In this way, while hypnosis might facilitate recall, it paradoxically introduces the risk of generating misleading or completely erroneous memories. Therefore, the potential for confabulation significantly highlights a key limitation in relying on hypnosis for accurate memory retrieval.