The revelation effect: A test of theories and the impact on witness and juror judgments

考虑以下行为：解决一个谜题，记住一个电话号码，或者解决一个简单的数学方程。这些行为中的每一个都可能会扭曲行为人的任何后续判断。例如，一个人可能看起来更熟悉，“豹子是陆地上跑得最快的动物”这句话更有可能是真的，或者一个人可能更有可能声称自己小时候玩球打碎了窗户。这种类型的判断扭曲被称为启示效应。我的研究项目有两个目标。第一个目标是确定启示效应背后的机制。为此，我对试图解释启示效应的现有理论和新理论进行了检验。第二个目标是调查启示效应是否涉及对现实世界关键事件的判断扭曲。例如，这包括目击证人在一组罪犯中辨认罪犯。在不知情的情况下，目击者可能会因为“启示效应”而诬告无辜者。因此，我的研究项目的第二部分是调查启示效应是否会扭曲目击证人或陪审员的判断。

Consider the following actions: Solving a puzzle, memorizing a phone number, or solving a simple math equation. Each of these actions will likely distort any succeeding judgments of the acting person. For example, a person may appear more familiar, the statement “the leopard is the fastest land animal” is more likely to appear true, or one may be more likely to claim to have broken a window playing ball as a child. This type of judgment distortion is called revelation effect. My research project has two goals. The first goal is to identify the mechanisms underlying the revelation effect. For this purpose I conduct tests of extant and new theories that attempt to explain the revelation effect. The second goal is to investigate whether the revelation effect involves judgment distortions in critical real-world events. This includes, for example, an eyewitness´ identification of the perpetrator in a lineup. Without knowing it, eyewitnesses might falsely accuse an innocent because of the revelation effect. Therefore, the second part of my research project investigates whether the revelation effect distorts judgments of eyewitnesses or jurors.