If you were asked to recall a particular event, you would likely envision it in your mind’s eye and give a verbal description of the who, what, why, when and how. And you would genuinely believe that you gave accurate testimony.
And while you may have much of it correct, you may have misremembered some key details. Unfortunately, that could be the difference between a guilty and not guilty verdict in a courtroom.
Why are eyewitnesses unreliable?
We view our memory as an exact playback, much like recording and watching a video on our phone. In actuality, it’s more like the edited version that gets uploaded to TikTok. While we manually make changes to our video, changes to our memories happen at a unconscious level.
Stress and anxiety can impair a person’s ability to pay attention to details. For example, if a weapon is involved in a violent crime, the witness is likely to focus on the weapon, not the person handling it.
Leading or suggestive questions, or even how a question is worded, can lead an eyewitness to remember details that never occurred. One notable study showed the ease with which memories can be manipulated. When shown a video of a car accident, some participants were asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other. Others were asked the same question, but the word “smash” was replaced with “hit”. Those who heard the phrase “smash” were likely to state the car was going at a higher speed.
Eyewitness reliability is also affected by unconscious bias. People are better at identifying others of their own race compared to those of other races. This issue can lead to misidentifications in a phenomenon known as the “cross-race effect.”
Unfortunately, eyewitness testimony has led to a significant amount of wrongful convictions that were later overturned by the advancements in DNA technology. Anyone who has been wrongly accused of a crime needs to ensure they are working with someone who understands the fallacies of eyewitnesses and will work on an effective defense strategy to mitigate any damage they may cause.