social psychology in court 1

Question 1

Why is an eyewitness testimony so important?

Answer 1

1. Seeing is believing
2. We believe something we hear if the person reporting it says “I saw it with my own eyes!”

Question 2

How do Social Psychologists assess the accuracy of eyewitness recollections?

Answer 2

They try to rate their overall hits and misses by :
1. staging crimes comparable to those in everyday life
2. Soliciting eyewitness reports

Question 3

What have studies for assessing the accuracy of eyewitness recollections confirmed?

Answer 3

1. Eyewitnesses often are more confident than correct
2. Jurors find confident witnesses the most believable
3. An eyewitness’ account can be flawed because the human mind is not a video recorder