Eyewitness Testimony, the Misinformation Effect and Reasonable Doubt

ABSTRACTEyewitnesses are susceptible to recollecting that they experienced an event in a way that is consistent with false information provided to them after the event. The effect is commonly called the misinformation effect. Because jurors tend to find eyewitness testimony compelling and persuasive, it is argued that jurors are likely to give inappropriate credence to eyewitness testimony, judging it to be reliable when it is not. It is argued that jurors should be informed about psychological findings on the misinformation effect, to ensure that they lower the credence that they give to eyewitness testimony to reflect the unreliability of human memory that is demonstrated by the effect. Here I present a new argument, the overcritical juror argument, to support the conclusion that eyewitnesses are likely to make inappropriate credence assignments to eyewitness testimony. Whereas previously authors have argued that jurors will tend to give too much credence to eyewitness testimony, I identify circumstances in which jurors will give too little credence to some pieces of testimony. In my view jurors should be informed by psychological findings relating to the misinformation effect to ensure that they do not lower the credence that they give to eyewitness testimony when they should not.

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The Gestural Misinformation Effect: Skewing Eyewitness Testimony Through Gesture

The American Journal of Psychology ◽

10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.3.0301 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 126 (3) ◽

pp. 301 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Gurney ◽

Pine ◽

Wiseman

Keyword(s):

Eyewitness Testimony ◽

Misinformation Effect

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Promoting eyewitness testimony quality: Warning vs. reinforced self-affirmation as methods of reduction of the misinformation effect

Polish Psychological Bulletin ◽

10.2478/ppb-2013-0009 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 85-91 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Malwina Szpitalak ◽

Romuald Polczyk

Keyword(s):

Positive Feedback ◽

Memory Task ◽

Eyewitness Testimony ◽

Control Group ◽

Misinformation Effect ◽

Typical Experiment ◽

Group Report ◽

Experimental Group ◽

Original Event

Abstract In a typical experiment on the misinformation effect, subjects first watch some event, afterwards read a description of it which in the experimental group includes some incorrect details, and answer questions relating to the original event. Typically, subjects in the misled experimental group report more false details than those from the control group. The main purpose of the presented study was to compare two methods of reducing the misinformation effect, namely - warning against misinformation and reinforced self-affirmation. The reinforced self-affirmation consists of two elements: the participants recall their greatest achievements of life, and are being given a positive feedback about their performance in a memory task. The obtained results showed that the reinforced self-affirmation was more effective than warning, although the latter also caused a significant reduction of the vulnerability to misinformation.

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