Eyewitness Confidence Malleability: Misinformation as Post-Identification Feedback

Law and Human Behavior, Vol.44, No.3, 2020

UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2021-23

Posted: 18 May 2021

See all articles by Rachel Leigh Greenspan

Rachel Leigh Greenspan

University of Mississippi - Criminal Justice and Legal Studies

Elizabeth F. Loftus

University of California, Irvine - Department of Psychological Science; University of California, Irvine School of Law

Date Written: May 14, 2021

Abstract

Objective: Feedback from lineup administrators about identification accuracy significantly impacts witness confidence. In the current studies, we investigated the effect of post-identification feedback given I-week after an initial, pristine lineup. We tested 2 kinds of feedback: typical feedback (i.e., about identification accuracy) and misinformation feedback. Misinformation feedback came in the form of suggestive questioning that falsely suggested the participant was either more or less confident in their initial identification than they actually reported. Hypotheses: We hypothesized both confirming misin­formation and typical feedback would significantly inflate witness confidence relative to no feedback controls while disconfirming misinformation and typical feedback would deflate witness confidence relative to controls. Method: Across 2 studies, participants (N = 907), recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk, watched a mock crime video, made an identification, and reported their confidence under unbiased lineup conditions. One week later, they received either confirming or disconfirming misinformation or typical feedback. They then provided a retrospective confidence judgment. Results: Misinformation feedback caused significant confidence change. Participants given false feedback that they were more confident in their initial identification than they reported later recalled greater initial confidence. Even when pristine identification conditions were used, typical confirming feedback caused participants to later remember greater confidence than they initially reported at the time of the lineup. Even in the absence of any feedback, control participants showed significant confidence inflation over time. Con­clusion: These results highlight the need for lineup administrators to both ask for and document verbatim witness confidence at the time of the initial identification.

Keywords: post-identification feedback, eyewitness confidence, misinformation, choice blindness

Suggested Citation

Greenspan, Rachel Leigh and Loftus, Elizabeth F., Eyewitness Confidence Malleability: Misinformation as Post-Identification Feedback (May 14, 2021). Law and Human Behavior, Vol.44, No.3, 2020, UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2021-23, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3846608

Rachel Leigh Greenspan (Contact Author)

University of Mississippi - Criminal Justice and Legal Studies ( email )

United States

Elizabeth F. Loftus

University of California, Irvine - Department of Psychological Science ( email )

4201 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-7085
United States

University of California, Irvine School of Law

401 E. Peltason Dr.
Ste. 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-1000
United States

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