Accuracy of Eyewitness Identifications in a Field Setting

• NCJ Number: 82285
• Journal: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Volume: 42 Issue: 4 Dated: (April 1982) Pages: 673-681
• Author(s): J C Brigham; A Maass; L D Snyder; K Spaulding
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 9 pages
• Grant Number(s): BNS77-27476
• Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Portions of these data were presented at the March 1980 Meetings of the Southeastern Psychological Association in Washington, D.C.

Annotation

Clerks working alone in convenience stores in a small city were asked by 'law interns' to identify from photograph lineups (prepared by the local police department) two male customers, one black and one white, who had been in their store 2 hours earlier.

Abstract

The 73 clerks (64 white and 9 black) working in 63 stores were able to make correct identifications about one-third of the time. Even when no-guesses were omitted, identifications were correct less than half (46.8%) of the time. Contrary to most earlier research, there was a substantial relationship between accuracy and clerks' confidence that they were correct (r=.50). Only slight evidence of an own-race bias in accuracy was found among the white clerks. White clerks' ability to identify the black customer was significantly related to the amount of self-reported cross-racial experiences. The attractiveness and distinctiveness of the customers was related to the frequency of correct identifications, as was the effective size and functional size of the lineups used. Black clerks showed better overall recognition accuracy than did white clerks. (Publisher abstract)