COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Social Influence in Eyewitness Identification Procedures: Do Blind Administrator Behaviors Magnify the Effects of Suspect Bias?

合作研究：目击者识别程序中的社会影响：盲目的管理员行为是否会放大嫌疑人偏见的影响？

• 批准号: 2043334
• 负责人: Margaret Bull Kovera
• 金额: $ 19.96万
• 依托单位: CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2043334&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; Social; Influence; Eyewitness

DNA exonerations of innocent individuals have consistently implicated eyewitness misidentification as a leading cause of wrongful conviction. A key factor producing these eyewitness misidentifications is social influence, or the process by which interactions with a police investigator affect eyewitnesses’ identification decisions. In an attempt to reduce social influences in eyewitness identification, researchers have recommended the implementation of double-blind lineup procedures in which the lineup administrator does not know which lineup member is under suspicion. However, even double-blind lineup administrators sometimes engage in behaviors that could influence eyewitness decision-making. This project will test whether double-blind lineups are sufficient to prevent social influence from increasing mistaken eyewitness identifications. The findings could support the development of more effective policy reforms by demonstrating a need to move toward fully computerized administration of eyewitness identification procedures, a practice that has yet to be adopted by law enforcement agencies in the United States.This project consists of a series of experiments that will examine social-influence processes in double-blind lineups. First, these experiments will identify social-influence behaviors emitted by double-blind administrators and assess their effects on eyewitness decision-making. Second, the experiments will test whether administrator influence in double-blind lineups can increase the risk of eyewitness misidentification of innocent suspects by exacerbating the effects of lineup factors that bias witnesses towards identifying the suspect (e.g., unfair lineups, repeated exposure to the suspect). Third, the experiments will examine how social-influence effects carry over across multiple identification procedures and assess whether some eyewitnesses are more vulnerable to social influence effects than others. Fourth, the experiments will test competing psychological theories regarding whether social influence has stronger effects on identifications of guilty or innocent suspects. Finally, the experiments will asses the effects of administrator influence on the diagnostic value of eyewitness confidence, which is relied upon by fact-finders (e.g., judges and jurors) to assess the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

无辜者的DNA免责始终将目击者的错误识别作为错误冲突的主要原因。产生这些目击者误解的关键因素是社会影响力，或者与警察调查员相互作用影响目击者的身份决定的过程。为了减少目击者识别的社会影响，研究人员建议执行阵容管理员不知道哪个阵容成员可疑的双盲阵容程序。但是，即使是双盲阵容管理员，有时也会从事可能影响目击者决策的行为。该项目将测试双盲阵容是否足以防止越来越多的错误目击者身份识别的社会影响。这些发现可以通过证明需要朝着完全计算机化的目击者识别程序管理迈向更有效的政策改革的发展，这种实践尚未由美国的执法机构采用，该项目由一系列实验组成，这些实验将研究双重盲目阵容中的社会创伤过程。首先，这些实验将确定双盲管理员发出的社会影响行为，并评估其对目击者决策的影响。其次，实验将测试管理员在双盲阵容中的影响是否会通过加剧阵容因素的影响，而阵容因素的影响会增加目击者对无辜嫌疑人的误解的风险，而阵容因素的影响使证人见证了犯罪嫌疑人（例如，不公平的阵容，对嫌疑人的反复暴露）。第三，这些实验将研究社会影响效应如何在多个识别程序中延续到多种识别程序中，并评估某些目击者是否比其他目击者更容易受到社会影响的影响。第四，实验将检验有关社会影响是否对认同有罪或无辜嫌疑人的竞争性心理理论。最后，这些实验将支持管理员对目击者信心诊断价值的影响，事实发现者（例如，法官和陪审员）依靠这一奖项来评估目击者识别证据的可靠性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基础的智力优点和广泛的范围来评估支持，并通过评估值得评估。