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

无辜者的DNA免责一直暗示目击者的错误识别是错误定罪的主要原因。造成这些目击者错误辨认的一个关键因素是社会影响，或者说是与警方调查人员的互动影响目击者辨认决定的过程。为了减少目击者辨认过程中的社会影响，研究人员建议实施双盲列队程序，其中列队管理员不知道哪个列队成员受到怀疑。然而，即使是双盲阵容管理员有时也会参与可能影响目击者决策的行为。该项目将测试双盲排队是否足以防止社会影响增加错误的目击者指认。研究结果可以支持更有效的政策改革的发展，通过证明有必要走向完全计算机化的管理目击者识别程序，一种尚未被美国执法机构采用的做法。该项目包括一系列实验，将研究社会影响过程中的双盲列队。首先，这些实验将确定由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列队中的影响是否会通过加剧使证人偏向于识别嫌疑人的列队因素的影响来增加目击者误认无辜嫌疑人的风险（例如，不公平的列队，反复暴露于嫌疑人）。第三，实验将研究社会影响效应如何在多个识别程序中进行，并评估一些目击者是否比其他人更容易受到社会影响效应的影响。第四，这些实验将检验相互竞争的心理学理论，即社会影响对有罪或无罪嫌疑人的认定是否有更大的影响。最后，实验将评估管理员对目击者信心诊断价值的影响，这是事实发现者所依赖的（例如，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.