Interviewing Witnesses Pezdek, Kathy; Sperry, Kathryn; Owens, Shana M
Law and human behavior,
10/2007, Volume:
31, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
After viewing a crime video, participants answered 16 answerable and 6 unanswerable questions. Those in the "voluntary guess" condition had a "don't know" response option; those in the "forced guess" ...condition did not. One week later the same questions were answered with a "don't know" option. In both experiments, information generated from forced confabulation was less likely remembered than information voluntarily self-generated. Further, when the same answer was given to an unanswerable question both times, the confidence expressed in the answer increased over time in both the forced and the voluntary guess conditions. Pressing eyewitnesses to answer questions, especially questions repeated thrice (Experiment 2), may not be an effective practice because it reliably increases intrusion errors but not correct recall.
Rape victim blame contributes to unreported incidents of sexual assault and failure to support victims (Ahrens in
American Journal of Community Psychology, 38
(3-4), 263-274,
2006
). The present ...study investigated the relationship between religiosity, religious priming, and rape victim blame. Using an online Qualtrics panel, 247 U.S. participants were randomly assigned to either a neutral prime or a religious prime. They then read a short vignette of an acquaintance rape scenario and answered questions regarding perceptions of victim blame, victim credibility, benevolent and hostile sexism, religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA). Results revealed that the religious prime reduced victim blame for highly religious participants but not among participants scoring lower in religiosity. The results confirmed that religiosity was positively correlated with both victim blame and RMA. The data also confirmed previous findings that men scored higher on blame than women and that higher religiosity correlated with higher victim blame. Additionally, RMA mediated the relationship between religiosity and rape victim blame. The results of this study could prove valuable in settings where sexual assault demands action from specifically religious individuals or institutions (e.g., jurors on a rape case in a highly-religious region or religious universities trying to confront the high prevalence of sexual assault on campus).
The body of sexual assault research historically focuses on survivors, specifically female survivors. Examining the beliefs of men who endorse sexually violent or coercive behavior fills an important ...gap in the literature. The current study surveyed 420 male participants on their endorsement of coercive dating tactics as provided in a best-selling men’s dating book, as well as endorsement of dating tactics generated from a sexual willingness framework. Overall, approximately 25% of male participants reported using or endorsing coercive sexual tactics. Several demographic factors and experiences related to higher endorsement of the coercive tactics, including past or present involvement in a fraternity, knowing a sexual assault perpetrator, affiliating with a religion, and frequent pornography viewing. The same individual factors related to endorsing the coercive tactics were associated with endorsing the willful tactics as well. Implications for greater representation in research for sexual minorities are discussed, as well as future direction for effective consent education.
Outsmarting the Liars Vrij, Aldert; Leal, Sharon; Granhag, Pär Anders ...
Law and human behavior,
04/2009, Volume:
33, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We hypothesised that the responses of pairs of liars would correspond less with each other than would responses of pairs of truth tellers, but only when the responses are given to unanticipated ...questions. Liars and truth tellers were interviewed individually about having had lunch together in a restaurant. The interviewer asked typical opening questions which we expected the liars to anticipate, followed by questions about spatial and/or temporal information which we expected suspects not to anticipate, and also a request to draw the layout of the restaurant. The results supported the hypothesis, and based on correspondence in responses to the unanticipated questions, up to 80% of liars and truth tellers could be correctly classified, particularly when assessing drawings.
Purpose. Victims of rape are often attributed a certain amount of responsibility, which is often translated into reduced victim credibility and fewer convictions in the courtroom. The purpose of the ...present study was to apply Weiner's attribution model to the literature on rape blame to understand why victim blame impacts credibility and verdict. Weiner's model posits that perceptions of a target's responsibility will lead to less sympathy and therefore reduced willingness to help the target. In line with this model, it was hypothesized that sympathy for a rape victim mediates the relationship between victim responsibility and: (a) willingness to help the victim, (b) credibility, and (c) verdict.
Methods. Participants read a 1,000‐word transcript of a rape trial and made judgements regarding the victim's responsibility for the rape, sympathy for the victim, willingness to help the victim, perceived witness credibility, and verdict. The victim's responsibility for the rape was manipulated between subjects.
Results. The hypotheses were supported: sympathy mediated the relationships between perceived victim responsibility and: (a) willingness to help the victim, (b) credibility, and (c) verdict. Using EQS, two models are presented (one hypothesized and one modified) that further delineate these relationships.
Conclusions. The present study applied a well‐established theory in social psychology to further understand the relationship between victim blame, willingness to help, victim credibility, and verdict. In line with Weiner's attribution model, sympathy for the victim played a key role in those relationships. Implications of these findings for legal professionals are discussed.
Purpose. Virtually all eyewitnesses to a crime, who eventually testify in court, are interviewed by police officers at least once. How do these interviews affect what the eyewitnesses are ...subsequently likely to report? The purpose of this study is to compare the relative impact of self‐ versus other‐generated misinformation on confabulated memory about an event. Self‐generated misinformation can occur by encouraging eyewitnesses to guess or speculate about possible answers to questions about which they report having no memory. Other‐generated misinformation can occur by having an investigator suggest an answer to an eyewitness.
Methods. After viewing a 5 minutes crime video, participants answered written questions. One week later these same questions were answered again. We specifically focused on individuals' answers to unanswerable questions that probed information not actually presented in the video. If a participant answered an unanswerable question, we know that their answer was confabulated because the information was not presented in the video.
Results. If an answer to an unanswerable question was forced confabulated at time 1, that answer was more likely to be repeated at time 2 if it had been other‐generated (suggested in the question) rather than self‐generated (fabricated by the participant).
Conclusions. Pressuring eyewitnesses to answer questions about an event, when they indicate that they do not know the answer, can result in false confabulations. Answers suggested by the investigator are more likely to be repeated later than are answers that are simply self‐generated or speculated by the eyewitness. These results are consistent with the reality monitoring framework and ‘recollect‐to‐reject’ metacognitive reasoning strategies.
Research in the courtroom literature consistently reports that victims are often blamed for crimes (e.g., Angelone, Mitchell, & Pilafova, 2006; Girard & Senn, 2007; Sims, Noel, & Maisto, 2007). ...Importantly, victim blame has also been found to influence the victim's credibility (e.g., Wenger & Bornstein, 2006) and verdict (e.g., Angelone et al., 2006; Wenger & Bornstein, 2006). The purpose of the present study was to understand why victim blame leads to reduced victim credibility and fewer convictions. Informed by Weiner's (1980a, 1985) attribution model, the role of sympathy was considered. According to Weiner, attributions about a target's responsibility for a situation influence the amount of sympathy elicited, which in turn influences behavioral intentions (such as helping). In other words, Weiner posited that sympathy mediates the relationship between attributions of responsibility and behavior. The present study applied this model to the victim blame literature. Just as Weiner's model explains the relationship between perceived responsibility and behavioral intentions, the present study used this model to explain the relationship between victim responsibility and three outcome measures: (a) willingness to help the victim, (b) perceived credibility, and (c) verdict. It was hypothesized that sympathy for the victim would mediate these relationships. In three studies, participants read a transcript of a rape trial and made judgments regarding the victim's responsibility for the rape, sympathy for the victim, willingness to help the victim, perceived witness credibility, and verdict. In study 1 (N = 111), all participants read the same transcript of an ambiguous rape trial. In Study 2 (N = 88) and Study 3 (N = 123), the victim's responsibility for the rape was manipulated between-subjects. In all three studies, the hypotheses were supported: sympathy mediated the relationship between perceived victim responsibility and (a) willingness to help the victim, (b) credibility, and (c) verdict. Structural Equation Modeling performed on the data in Study 3 revealed a model that explained 91% of the variance in verdict. In line with the attribution literature, sympathy played a key role in this model. Implications for the courtroom are discussed.
Abstract Background and Hypothesis Schizotypy is a useful and unifying construct for examining the etiology, development, and expression of schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology. The positive, ...negative, and disorganized schizotypy dimensions are associated with distinct patterns of schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms and impairment. Furthermore, they are differentiated by mean levels of psychotic-like, suspicious, negative, and disorganized schizotypic experiences in daily life, and by temporal dynamics of affect. The schizotypy dimensions were thus hypothesized to be differentiated by the temporal dynamics of schizotypic experiences in daily life. Study Design The present study employed experience sampling methodology in a large nonclinically ascertained sample (n = 693) to examine the associations of multidimensional schizotypy with psychotic-like, suspicious, negative, and disorganized schizotypic experiences in daily life, as well as with their temporal dynamics (variability, reactivity, inertia, and instability). Study Results We replicated the mean-level associations between multidimensional schizotypy and schizotypic experiences in daily life. Furthermore, positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy demonstrated hypothesized, differential patterns of temporal dynamics of schizotypic experiences. Disorganized schizotypy demonstrated the most robust associations, including intensity, variability, and inertia of disorganized schizotypic experiences. Disorganized schizotypy also moderated reactivity of psychotic-like and disorganized schizotypic experiences following previously reported stress. Positive schizotypy was associated with intensity and variability of psychotic-like experiences. Negative schizotypy was associated with intensity and variability of negative schizotypic experiences. Conclusions The findings indicate that schizotypy dimensions can be differentiated by both mean levels and temporal patterns of psychotic-like, suspicious, negative, and disorganized schizotypic experiences in daily life, with disorganized schizotypy uniquely characterized by stress reactivity.
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