Investigating the effects of age and gender on cowitness suggestibility during blame attribution

Mojtahedi, Dara and Ioannou, Maria and Hammond, Laura and Synnott, John (2019) Investigating the effects of age and gender on cowitness suggestibility during blame attribution. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling. ISSN 1544-4759

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Abstract

Despite a large body of research investigating the effects of age and gender on eyewitness suggestibility, the majority of studies have focussed on the impressionability of participants when attempting to recall the presence of items from an event. Very little research has attempted to investigate the effects of age and gender on the suggestibility of eyewitnesses when attempting to attribute blame. Participants (N=268) viewed and discussed a crime (video) with co-witnesses before giving individual statements. Confederates were used to expose the participants to misinformation during the discussion, suggesting that the wrong bystander was responsible for the offence. Findings indicated that participants who encountered the misinformation were more likely to make a false blame attribution and were more confident in their erroneous judgements. The results found no significant age or gender-related differences in blame conformity rates, however, male eyewitnesses showed greater levels of overconfidence in their false responses than female participants, after encountering co-witness misinformation.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1002/jip.1533
Dates:
DateEvent
29 July 2019Accepted
20 August 2019Published Online
Subjects: CAH04 - psychology > CAH04-01 - psychology > CAH04-01-01 - psychology (non-specific)
Divisions: Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences > Dept. Psychology
Depositing User: Silvio Aldrovandi
Date Deposited: 08 Sep 2019 17:10
Last Modified: 03 Mar 2022 15:42
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/7957

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