What is it about?
The birth and early development of eyewitness psychology, and forensic psychology more generally, can be traced back to Germany at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Here Louis William Stern (1871-1938) and Otto Lipmann (1880-1933) promoted experiments on errors, deception, and suggestions in eyewitness testimony, founded a journal, proposed legal reforms, and appeared as expert psychologists before courts of law in controversial cases, involving not only psychologists but also lawyers and teachers in their activities. Hugo Münsterberg’s (1863-1916) pioneering contribution On the Witness Stand (1908), often considered the starting point of the psychology of testimony, cannot be adequately understood without reference to this broader background, which Münsterberg knew well.
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Why is it important?
Our discussion emphasizes the importance of legal, contextual, and socio-cultural factors influencing research findings and expert testimony, and the need to overcome.
Perspectives
The efforts of the founders, and their difficulties, conditioned by epochal cultural and political trends, prejudices in society and media coverage, seem to be comparable to current concerns.
Siegfried Ludwig Sporer
Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen
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This page is a summary of: Psychology of eyewitness testimony in Germany in the 20th century., History of Psychology, May 2022, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/hop0000199.
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