The uncertain effect of weapons in eyewitness memory

What is it about?

Eyewitness testimony plays a critical role in the legal system. At the same time, decades of prior research has shown that witnesses' memories of crimes are not always reliable. One factor thought to impair witness memory is the presence of a weapon, with some research demonstrating that witnesses remember the appearance of armed perpetrators less well than unarmed perpetrators. However, we report data from five independent experiments with over 1,300 participants which found little evidence that witness memory is harmed by the presence of weapons. More research is needed before strong conclusions about the effects of weapons on witness memory can be applied the legal system with confidence.

Featured Image

Photo by Max Kleinen on Unsplash

Photo by Max Kleinen on Unsplash