SOME BOUNDARY-CONDITIONS FOR BYSTANDER MISIDENTIFICATION

For this study, 650 undergraduate students viewed a videotaped, simula ted robbery. Participants were significantly more likely to select a b ystander from a photoarray than the actual perpetrator, and they were more confident in their misidentifications of the bystander. Participa nts who were shown a photoarray without the bystander present were ove r six times more likely to select the perpetrator than observers who w ere shown an array that included the bystander. The significant miside ntifications of the bystander were eliminated when the event was resta ged to show both the bystander and the perpetrator for a few seconds i n the same frames of the video. It was concluded that mere bystander p resence is not sufficient to produce significant bystander misidentifi cations and that an eyewitness must make an inference that the bystand er and the perpetrator are the same person. Implications for the under standing of unconscious transference are explored.