pseudo-eventn.

1890 Science 14 Feb. 113/2 Hypnotism... The retro-active hallucinations take place when the subject accepts the suggestion that a certain event has formed a part of his experience... The easily impressed subject absorbs the pseudo-event into his mental possessions.

1997 H. H. Spitz Nonconscious Movements vi. 150 The recovery of pseudo events can seem just as vivid as the recovery of real events, despite the fact that objective evidence indicates they never could have occurred.

2004 Psychol. Sci. 15 149 We asked 45 undergraduates to work at remembering three school-related childhood events (two true events provided by parents and one pseudoevent).

1962 D. J. Boorstin Image i. 9 A pseudo-event..is not spontaneous, but comes about because someone has planned, planted, or incited it. Typically, it is not a train wreck or an earthquake, but an interview.

1969 Daily Tel. 1 Aug. (Colour Suppl.) 10/4 Beauty Festivals are pseudo-events of almost clinical purity.

1976 Listener 28 Oct. 524/3 The [US] election campaign became a perfect pseudo-event..a game played on..trains, in..planes, and in shopping precincts.

1990 Interview Aug. 52/1 But the Lotto stunt was not nearly as interesting as a 1979 Abel pseudo-event, at which he staged the mock wedding of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin to a prim American bride.

1993 Jrnl. Sustainable Tourism 1 12 Since real cultural events do not always occur on schedule, we invent pseudo-events for tour operators.

2004 K. M. Cresap Pop Trickster Fool 17 While others belabor the distinction between sincerity and authenticity, Andy [Warhol] applies himself to mastering the pseudo-event and the media put-on.

1962 D. J. Boorstin Image iv. 161 A pseudo-eventful by-product of the [celebrity] star system is what Time magazine has accurately described as ‘non-books’. These are printed matter between covers, usually put together by someone other than the ostensible autobiographer.