Culture of silence: examining the influence of culture in mock-eyewitness reports

Culture shapes communication norms and societal expectations about an individual’s ties to their social group. This research examined the extent to which cultural influences impact reporting of crime information, including when there is pre-existing relationship between the witness and perpetrator. In a pre-registered online quasi-experiment (N = 163), we examined mock-witness statements about a road traffic incident provided by individuals from the United Kingdom and China (fluent in English). For both groups of participants, the identity of the perpetrator was manipulated to simulate three levels of relationship proximity with mock-witnesses (close–same culture; stranger–same culture; stranger–different culture). In line with our hypothesis, we found an effect of cultural group on the amount of correct information reported. Replicating previous research, individuals from the UK, whose culture is associated with low-context communication preferences, reported significantly more information than those from China, who are associated with a high-context communication culture. Despite an increase in disclosure when reporting information about an out-group target, this affiliation effect was not statistically significant, and neither was the interaction effect. These findings highlight that witnesses’ cultural background should be considered in investigative interviewing contexts, and caution that a witness–perpetrator relationship, to a lesser extent, may jeopardise reporting of information by eyewitnesses. Limitations of the study and future research are discussed.