Predicting accuracy in eyewitness showups: confidence and response time in the laboratory, confidence in the field

Police administer live showup procedures when a suspect is located shortly after a crime, yet most prior research has relied on static, image-based showups, where confidence is often a weaker predictor of accuracy than in lineup procedures. Because actual police showup procedures involve live, in-person identifications, we conducted two studies to test the reliability of eyewitness confidence in live showups. In Study 1, a laboratory experiment (N = 229), identifications made with both high confidence and fast response time were more likely to be correct, and high-confidence rejections indicated suspect innocence. In Study 2 (N = 153), a field study using showup cases from two US jurisdictions, eyewitness confidence again indicated accuracy, assessed with the Strength of Evidence Scale as a proxy for ground truth. These findings demonstrate that eyewitness confidence is an indicator of accuracy in live showups, with implications for law enforcement policy and safeguards against wrongful convictions. When administered with procedures to reduce bias, live showups can yield reliable and probative identification, supporting their continued use in police investigations.