Eyewitnesses Are More Accurate When They’re Confident

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Photo credit:

BostonBill (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

People who witness crimes are often asked to identify suspects in a lineup. Traditionally, police would present them with six people simultaneously, five of whom are fillers who are innocent but resemble the suspect. Photo arrays are more common these days than live lineups, and previous studies found that these work better if the pictures are presented in a sequence, rather than all at once. Almost a third of U.S. law enforcement agencies have since adopted this sequential procedure.