Mug Shot Research Articles

Mug Shots and Reader Attitudes toward People in the News

This experimental study links research about use of newspaper mug shots with facial expression research in nonverbal communication. There were significant differences in the personal attributes ascribed by readers to the source of a news story based on the nature of the mug shot (positive, neutral, or negative) which accompanied the story, particularly readers' views of the source's congeniality and integrity. Credibility factors were less affected. Women generally responded less favorably than men toward the source. Readers rated a source more congenial when the story was accompanied by a photo.

Are hypnotically induced pseudomemories resistant to cross-examination?

Two experiments examined the effects of hypnotic procedures in response to interrogation and crossexamination in subjects who viewed a simulated robbery. Experiment 1 found that hypnotic and nonhypnotic leading interrogations were equally likely to produce misattributions and misidentification of mug shots. Moreover, under cross-examination subjects who had been given an hypnotic interrogation and those given nonhypnotic interrogations were equally likely to disavow their earlier misattributions and misidentifications. In both hypnotic and nonhypnotic treatments high hypnotizables were more likely than low hypnotizables to misattribute characteristics during interrogation and to disavow earlier misattributions during cross-examination. In Experiment 2 high hypnotizables given a cross-examination that legitimated their earlier errors as honest mistakes and that enabled them to disavow earlier testimony without discrediting themselves (hidden observer treatment) showed the highest and most consistent rates of disavowel. A stringent cross-examination that implied that subjects had been careless or dishonest during interrogation produced the lowest rates of disavowel.

Front Page Mug Shots: A Content Analysis of Five U.S. Newspapers in 1986

Mug shots from five U.S. newspapers: USA Today, Chicago Tribune, New Orleans Times-Picayune, New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, were analyzed for the same five-day work week of each month for 1986. The 300 front pages yielded 520 head shots of 1,148 photographs. USA Today and newspapers with its similar graphic style use more mug shots without an accompanying article on the front page than more traditionally designed newspapers.

Industry

Pictured posing of a mug shot is John Price, export manager of Dane & Company Ltd.

Recognizing People Seen in Events via Dynamic "Mug Shots"

This study examined effects of an event and dynamic mug shots on facial recognition. Witnesses saw either a film of a liquor store holdup staged by six perpetrators, slides of the same targets, or freeze-framed views from the filmed event. Slides of different facial views of targets among 12 foils, or dynamic 180 degrees mug shots of the same men, or multiple static views were administered 24 hr later in yes-no recognition tests. Recognition (d') was poorer for the same men seen in the event than in slides, but better for dynamic than for static mug shots. Nondynamic event characteristics were responsible for poor recognition of people seen in events, whereas dynamic aspects of facial transformations, not multiple views, seemed responsible for the superiority of dynamic mug shots. The implications of these results for issues of ecological validity of traditional face recognition methodology and for static feature models vs. dynamic transformation models of face recognition are discussed.

Effects of Interrogator Bias and a Police Trait Questionnaire on the Accuracy of Eyewitness Identification

Summary Seventy-two male research participants watched a filmed pursesnatching and then assumed the role of an eyewitness and reported the incident. A confederate-interrogator asked the witness to complete a police trait questionnaire describing the perpetrator, or an irrelevant biographical questionnaire. The interrogator then presented a series of mug shots and either emitted subtle, nonverbal cues in an attempt to influence the witness, or did not attempt to influence the witness in any way. Results indicated that neither the questionnaire manipulation nor the bias manipulation affected the accuracy of eyewitness identifications. However, witnesses in the bias condition were likely to identify the target of the interrogator's bias as the perpetrator, even when the biasing cues were directed at nonperpetrators.

Social Dramas and Stories about Them

Analyse de la structure sociale des Ndembu du nord-ouest de la Zambie et de la facon dont cette structure abstraite determine le type de relations concretes que nouent les individus et les conflits qui les opposent. La structure sociale Ndembu se caracterise par une opposition constante entre ligne paternelle et ligne maternelle, une residence virilocale inversee par les divorces frequents qui ramenent chez leurs peres les epouses et leurs enfants.

Recognition of human faces: effects of target exposure time, target position, pose position, and type of photograph.

Three experiments investigated Ss' ability to recognize a target person (whom they had previously seen) in a test series of ISO pictures of faces. The longer the original exposure to the target and the earlier the target picture appeared in the test series, the greater the probability of recognition. The pose position in the test series (front, profile, or portrait view) and the type of photograph (color or black and white) did not affect recognition. These results have implications for procedures used by law enforcement agencies in the process of a witness attempting to identify a criminal from a set of mug shots. The last 10 yr. have witnessed a tremendous upsurge in psychological research on human memory. More recently, a great deal of this research has focused on visual memory or imagery. A general finding is that when people do form visual images of things to be remembered, retention is remarkably better than when images are not formed (Bower, 1970; Paivio, 1969).