Group-based biases and validity in eyewitness credibility judgments : Examining effects of witness ethnicity and presentation modality.

• To study how witness ethnicity and testimony presentation mode affected judgments of eyewitness credibility, testimonies from 6 immigrant and 6 Swedish accuracy-matched witnesses to a crime were presented to Swedish fact finders (N = 120) in videotape or as a transcript. Results showed that witnesses were perceived as more credible in the visual as compared to the written medium. Moreover, witness ethnicity affected judgments differentially depending on presentation mode for fact finders high in prejudice toward immigrants. Results also revealed that fact finders' judgments corresponded with the self-reported confidence of Swedish, but not immigrant witnesses and that in the transcript condition, judgmental validity was lower in estimates of Swedes' as compared to immigrants' accuracy. The findings indicate that presentation mode can function as a moderator of group-based effects in social judgments, and that both psychological theory and judicial systems need to consider thoroughly how different stimulus presentations compare in terms of the impact on perceivers.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

witness ethnicity

eyewitness credibility

testimony presentation mode

group based biases

Psychology

Psykologi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)