Cross-race recognition deficit and visual attention: do they all look (at faces) alike?

  • Authors:
  • Sheree Josephson;Michael E. Holmes

  • Affiliations:
  • Weber State University;Ball State University

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2008 symposium on Eye tracking research & applications
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

An eye-tracking study was conducted to examine cross-race recognition deficit (CRRD) or own-race bias in cross-racial eyewitness identification. It is known in the legal community that cross-racial eyewitnesses are often wrong, resulting in a number of erroneous convictions in the United States. Forty participants in a racially diverse area of the U.S. watched a video of a property crime being committed and then returned about 24 hours later to pick the suspect out of a photo array while their eyes were tracked. A majority of participants misidentified the suspect or believed he was not in the lineup. Correct identifications were higher than expected when the eyewitness and suspect were of the same race. Conversely, misidentifications were higher than expected in the cross-race condition. Three clusters emerged from comparison of the eye-path sequences. A "quick and confident" cluster contained largely white eyewitnesses and white suspects. A "mixed results" cluster was largely cross-race cases. A "cautious confirmation" cluster consisted of more black eyewitnesses and black suspects. ANOVAs to analyze distribution of attention revealed a main effect only for eyewitness race. An interaction effect of eyewitness race and suspect race -- indicating a connection between visual attention and CRRD -- was not found.