Eyewitness Testimonies - Misleading Information

Eyewitness testimonies (EWT) rely on people's memory to be able to establish what happened and who was involved in incidents. Judges pay close attention to EWTs and find they are a reliable source of information. However this is not always the case as EWTs can be affected by different things including;

• Misleading information - leading questions, post event discussion
• Anxiety
• False memory - you can plant a false memory in someones head and to them it becomes a reality. The closer to reality it is the more likely they are to remember it. E.g. telling a teenager they are ill because they drank too much the night before
• Demand characteristics - witnesses giving the answers they think the interrogator wants to hear

Misleading Information:

Leading Questions:

A leading question is a question that because of the way it is worded, it suggests a certain answer. E.g. 'Was the knife in the man's left hand?' This suggests the answer is left hand. Loftus…