Eyewitnesses’ blindness for changes in one’s own- and other-race lineup identification

We hypothesized that participants who perform other- compared with own-race identifications would be less likely to detect when their identification decision is manipulated. To test this hypothesis, Black (n=40) and White African (n=43), as well as Black (n=22) and White European (n=40) participants, were asked to identify Caucasian targets.

Participants watched four mock crime films and made several identifications from simultaneous target-present and target-absent lineups. Forty-eight hours later, participants had to justify their identification decisions for the perpetrators. For two of the four identifications participants were confronted with a non-previously identified lineup member.