Blame Conformity: Leading Eyewitness Statements can Influence Attributions of Blame for an Accident

This study explored whether attributions of blame for an incident can be shifted between people due to leading eyewitness statement.

The method had participants watch a video of an accident involving two men and read either a non-leading witness statement that blamed no one for the accident, or a leading eyewitness statement that blamed one of the men for the accident.

Providing background:

·       It’s well established that “when eyewitnesses encounter post-event information (PEI) that contradicts or supplements information contained within a witnessed event, they often incorporate this new information into their testimonies”

·       Co-witness PEI can be passed from one eyewitness to another via conversation or indirectly through a third party, like police, who informs one eyewitness about what another eyewitness has said

·       Eyewitness surveys have shown that the direct transmission of co-witness PEI may not be uncommon, as there is often multiple eyewitnesses to events and they frequently discuss the event they discussed with each other

·       PEI “can alter eyewitness testimonies”

·       Examples of this distortion include memory conformity, where one eyewitness alters their memory report of an event so it’s consistent with another’s account which is different and sometimes erroneous

·       There’s also real documented cases where erroneous co-witness information “imparted during eyewitness discussions has resulted in memory conformity, meaning unreliable testimonies were subsequently provided to the police and courts”

·       They argue that since co-witness PEI is a robust influence, it’s also possible that eyewitnesses who encounter co-witness PEI that blames someone for a specific incident will also engage in blame conformity “whereby they align their own attributions of blame with the co-witness”

Results

Key findings were that:

·       Blame conformity was demonstrated in this sample, where blame for an accident can be shifted between individuals as a result of a leading eyewitness statement

·       They found that over 1/3 of participants who read an eyewitness statement blaming an individual for an accident “subsequently blamed the same person for its occurrence”

·       Conversely, less than 4% of participants who read a non-leading eyewitness statement with no blame subsequently attributed blame to an individual

·       A one week delay between watching the video and attributing the cause didn’t affect the results

They say the finding of blame conformity came as no surprise, given the previously demonstrated effects of co-witness PEI on witness testimonies. The “persistence of blame conformity after a 1 week delay is also consistent with previous research demonstrating that co-witness PEI can continue to influence testimonies after 7 days”.

They highlight that the past research primarily focused on memory conformity, where participants alter their memory reports of events to be consistent with a co-witness. In contrast, this study demonstrated that attributions of blame are also influenced by co-witness PEI and the effect remain over time.

They didn’t study the reasons why participants engaged in blame conformity (later research has explored this, though). They hypothesise social and normative factors.

They also found that blame was attributed differently to the men in the video, where people who blamed the police officer judged him to be more forceful in the encounter with a homeless man than people who did not blame the police officer.

This may suggest that there were differences in memory between those that did and those that did not blame.

They say that these findings have important legal implications. For instance, multiple eyewitnesses are known to frequently discuss the event they have witnessed, or have shifts in memory recollection, or as this study has shown, blame conformity.

Link in comments.

Authors: Thorley, C., & Rushton‐Woods, J. (2013). Blame conformity: Leading eyewitness statements can influence attributions of blame for an accident. Applied cognitive psychology, 27(3), 291-296.

Study link: https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.2906

My site with more reviews: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/blame-conformity-leading-eyewitness-statements-can-ben-hutchinson-eaj0c