Eyewitness Identification in Its Social Context

Abstract

Much of the literature on eyewitness identification neglects the social context in which identifications are made. As the number of cognitive psychologists conducting eyewitness research increased so did the use of signal detection theory and ROC analyses. With the resulting need for larger sample size, researchers moved toward conducting studies on internet platforms that allow for crowd-sourcing research participants. These methods make it next to impossible to ask research questions that explore the ways in which social interactions influence the identifications made by witnesses. Yet, the possibility of social context effects on witness memory are prevalent in applied contexts and research supports their existence. In addition, some eyewitness identifications may not be governed by memory at all. We argue that a consideration of social context effects is required to fully explore the reliability of witness identifications and propose a number of avenues for future research.