#590 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday February 22)
musingsbeyondthebunker.substack.com
Good morning, EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY Several people have told me stories about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, after I recounted in a Musing a lesson I learned on this subject from a journalism teacher back in ninth grade. It now is well documented that eyewitness testimony is notably unreliable. People remember tiny bits of an event and then fill in the details. Sometimes filling in the details occurs based upon suggestion. A police officer asks leading questions to elicit a desired response, a lineup is presented and the perpetrator “must” be in that group, or the confirmation bias occurs in conversation with another eyewitness. We believe we remember more than we actually do. In the criminal justice system, the stakes are high. Now, with DNA testing, we are learning that people wrongfully have been convicted based upon dubious eyewitness testimony.
#590 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday February 22)
#590 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday…
#590 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday February 22)
Good morning, EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY Several people have told me stories about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, after I recounted in a Musing a lesson I learned on this subject from a journalism teacher back in ninth grade. It now is well documented that eyewitness testimony is notably unreliable. People remember tiny bits of an event and then fill in the details. Sometimes filling in the details occurs based upon suggestion. A police officer asks leading questions to elicit a desired response, a lineup is presented and the perpetrator “must” be in that group, or the confirmation bias occurs in conversation with another eyewitness. We believe we remember more than we actually do. In the criminal justice system, the stakes are high. Now, with DNA testing, we are learning that people wrongfully have been convicted based upon dubious eyewitness testimony.