British psychologists, based on the results of their experiment, claim that it is very simple to persuade innocent people that they participated in crimes several years ago. The research on this subject was published in the journal Psychological Science.

Scientists invited 60 students who had not been involved in any crimes. Then they contacted their parents and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about their child's teenage years.

The students then took part in three 40-minute interviews that took place about a week apart. 30 participants were told in a friendly interview about the crimes they committed as a teenager.

Spicing their history with real details, researchers convinced the students that a few years ago they participated in thefts, beating and even armed attack. Soon the participants started to tell details from their crimes themselves, Daily Mail reports.

''Our research has shown that it is easy to create false memories about crimes in case of contacting the police. It is enough to tell the man some false details sounding real, and the latter will not only believe that, but also he will tell new data about it''-said the leading researcher of the study, Julia Shaw.