Eyewitness evidence not worth the paper it's printed on

Yet another study demonstrating the malleability of memory:

Researchers at the University of Warwick have found that fake video evidence can dramatically alter people's perceptions of events, even convincing them to testify as an eyewitness to an event that never happened.

Associate Professor Dr Kimberley Wade from the Department of Psychology led an experiment to see whether exposure to fabricated footage of an event could induce individuals to accuse another person of doing something they never did.

In the study, published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Dr Wade found that almost 50% of people shown fake footage of an event they witnessed first hand were prepared to believe the video version rather than what they actually saw.

Press release here, found via FuturePundit -- where a commenter usefully references the work of Elizabeth Loftus.

Posted by David on September 16, 2009 8:46 AM