Origin and Development of the "Other-Race Effect" in Children

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

Analyses of "wrongful convictions," cases in which subsequent evidence (e.g., DNA analyses) has indicated that the convicted person was not guilty of the crime, have found that incorrect eyewitness identifications have led to more convictions of innocent people than have all other factors combined. Prior research has shown that a key factor on eyewitness mistakes is the tendency for people to recognize faces of a different race more poorly than faces of their own race; this phenomenon has been called the "other-race effect." Research with adults has clearly demonstrated the pervasiveness of this effect, but little is known about when this effect originates or what its course of development may be through childhood. This gap in knowledge is addressed in the current project by examining the effect in young African Americans and Whites at four developmental levels (second graders, sixth graders, tenth graders, and college sophomores). The goals of the project are to understand how the effect develops across childhood, and whether and how it can be changed. In addition to yielding important basic information about human perception and memory, these studies should provide useful information to those who work with children as witnesses in the criminal and civil justice systems. The findings should be particularly relevant to those who formulate policies about how best to obtain, interpret, and utilize eyewitness memory reports from children of various ages.