Eyewitness confidence malleability: Misinformation as post-identification feedback.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Forensic Psychology

Background:

• Post-identification feedback significantly impacts witness confidence.
• Witness confidence is a critical factor in legal proceedings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of typical and misinformation feedback on witness confidence.
• To examine how feedback given one week after an initial identification influences retrospective confidence judgments.

Main Methods:

• Two studies involving 907 participants recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk.
• Participants viewed a mock crime, made an identification, and reported confidence under unbiased conditions.
• One week later, participants received confirming/disconfirming misinformation or typical feedback before a retrospective confidence judgment.

Main Results:

• Misinformation feedback significantly altered perceived initial confidence.
• Confirming feedback, both typical and misinformation, inflated recalled confidence.
• Even control groups showed confidence inflation over time without feedback.

Conclusions:

• Witness confidence is malleable and susceptible to post-identification feedback.
• The timing and nature of feedback can distort memory of initial confidence.
• Documenting verbatim witness confidence at the time of identification is crucial for accurate legal assessments.