The effect of socially encountered misinformation and a delay on children's eyewitness testimony

Lucy Akehurst, N. Burden, J. Buckle

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of different types of post-event misinformation and a 3-month delay on children's suggestibility. Children aged 9-11 years old were interviewed about a witnessed event, on three occasions: immediately after witnessing the event (Baseline), after exposure to misinformation (Time 1) and after a 3-month delay (Time 2). With regard to misinformation, the children were allocated to one of three conditions: exposure to a biased narrative, exposure to a biased confederate, and no exposure to misleading information. Suggestibility was significantly higher when misinformation was introduced socially, by a confederate, than when it was introduced via a written narrative. Suggestibility scores, however, for all the children were significantly lower after a 3-month delay, although those who had been exposed to misinformation were still more suggestible than those in the control group.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)S125-S136
JournalPsychiatry, Psychology and Law
Volume16
Issue numberS1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2009

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