S. Penrod et B. Cutler, WITNESS CONFIDENCE AND WITNESS ACCURACY - ASSESSING THEIR FORENSIC RELATION, Psychology, public policy, and law, 1(4), 1995, pp. 817-845
Jurors overbelieve eyewitnesses, have difficulty reliably differentiat
ing accurate from inaccurate eyewitnesses, and are not adequately sens
itive to aspects of witnessing and identification conditions. A major
source of juror unreliability is reliance on witness confidence, a dub
ious indicator of eyewitness,accuracy even when measured at the time a
n identification is made, Confidence appears to be influenced by posti
dentification factors such as repeated questioning, briefings in antic
ipation of cross-examination, and feedback about the behavior of other
witnesses. Juror reliance on witness confidence appears to be unaffec
ted by traditional safeguards such as cross-examination and judges' in
structions in eyewitness cases, Expert psychological testimony on the
factors that influence eyewitness memory, in contrast, appears to redu
ce juror reliance on confidence and enhance use of other factors known
to affect memory.