In 2018, Melbourne's RMIT University launched Sans Forgetica, a gappy, back-slanted typeface designed to be slightly hard to read. The idea: that extra effort would make text more memorable. The launch made headlines worldwide. But in 2020, two independent teams tested it on hundreds of participants: it was rated harder to read than Arial, yet produced no better recall, and sometimes slightly worse.
Remembering is not replaying a recording — it is rebuilding. Each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily malleable and can be altered before being stored again. That is why two people can sincerely remember the same event… differently.
In 2003, Johnson and Goldstein compared European countries. Where you must tick a box to become a donor, consent rates ranged from 4% to 28%. Where you're a donor by default unless you opt out, they topped 85%. People aren't more generous on one side; most simply stick with whatever option was chosen for them.