What is it about?
When we listen to someone speaking, while we may feel that they are telling the truth, they might be lying or misremembering. Even an assessment of what they said in the light of other evidence may be mistaken, because human reasoning is flawed. These psychological features profoundly affect how legal systems should evaluate the testimony of witnesses.
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Why is it important?
Judges and juries make life-changing decisions about who is telling the truth. Our analysis and a simple diagram show the ways in which a feeling that someone is credible can be wrong. Factfinders should not rely on intuition, which is known to be faulty, but rather should always consider lies and memory failures. This is the first cognitive model that also accounts for post-conviction processes, taking into consideration cases where the assessments of evidence at trial were wrong.
Perspectives
By distinguishing between judgements of a person and an assessment of their testimony, I hope this work helps integrate the science of memory and lie detection into legal decision making.
Tim Brennen
University of Oslo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Witnesses and their testimony: A model of credibility, reliability, and the factual truth., Psychology Public Policy and Law, May 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/law0000498.
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