The power ascribed to eyewitness testimony is worrying given how inaccurate it can be. There are likely many people who have been imprisoned on that kinds of testimony alone. Given our experience with magicians and illusions and how poorly we remember it is perplexing why eye witnessing continues to play such an important role.
This is so interesting and it reminds me of all my years in auto insurance. Even when someone is recalling something they were intimately involved in first hand (like an auto accident), they frequently mistakenly report all sorts of things. People don’t do it intentionally, it’s just how we’re wired. We’d get reports from people saying they saw a car coming at them and it was “three minutes” before impact. (It couldn’t be more than seconds), or they mentioned trees that blocked their view that didn’t exist, and on and on. It’s objectively fascinating, but also frustrating, because witness testimony is unreliable.
Thanks very much indeed for your comments, Joy. My apologies for taking a while getting back to you. I’m very glad you found it interesting. If you worked in auto insurance, I’m sure you have a number of stories to tell that illustrate many of the points in the article. I’m really intrigued by the driver who thought the car was coming at them for three minutes! You’d think they would wonder themselves why they didn’t scarper out of the way. I don’t know whether there is much research on the perception of and memory for time in these incidents (it’s a long while since I worked in the area) but it would make for some fascinating research I dare say. Many thanks indeed for supporting Crime & Psychology!
The power ascribed to eyewitness testimony is worrying given how inaccurate it can be. There are likely many people who have been imprisoned on that kinds of testimony alone. Given our experience with magicians and illusions and how poorly we remember it is perplexing why eye witnessing continues to play such an important role.
This is so interesting and it reminds me of all my years in auto insurance. Even when someone is recalling something they were intimately involved in first hand (like an auto accident), they frequently mistakenly report all sorts of things. People don’t do it intentionally, it’s just how we’re wired. We’d get reports from people saying they saw a car coming at them and it was “three minutes” before impact. (It couldn’t be more than seconds), or they mentioned trees that blocked their view that didn’t exist, and on and on. It’s objectively fascinating, but also frustrating, because witness testimony is unreliable.
Thanks very much indeed for your comments, Joy. My apologies for taking a while getting back to you. I’m very glad you found it interesting. If you worked in auto insurance, I’m sure you have a number of stories to tell that illustrate many of the points in the article. I’m really intrigued by the driver who thought the car was coming at them for three minutes! You’d think they would wonder themselves why they didn’t scarper out of the way. I don’t know whether there is much research on the perception of and memory for time in these incidents (it’s a long while since I worked in the area) but it would make for some fascinating research I dare say. Many thanks indeed for supporting Crime & Psychology!