From: The Wall Street Journal
A Pair of Witnesses Can Be Better Than One
The Wall Street Journal:
If you witness a crime, what’s the best way to recall what happened? Minutes to months later, police might ask you the color of the perp’s eyes, the design of his tattoo or how long it took him to pull out a gun after he entered the room. Would it be better to recount your story on your own or alongside the person you were with at the time?
Anyone who has ever watched a police procedural can answer that question. Witnesses are always interviewed alone, in a dismal, windowless holding cell—that is, if the interview takes place in Hollywood.
…
Led by the Dutch legal psychology professors Annelies Vredeveldt and Peter van Koppen and colleagues at VU University Amsterdam, the researchers asked people who had recently seen a play to describe a violent, emotional scene. Of 53 adults who saw the same play on three separate nights, 36 came to the theater as couples and were interviewed together afterward. They ranged from spouses to one pair that had just met for the first time. The 17 others were interviewed as individuals. The researchers then compared the two groups. Who would produce a more accurate chronicle of a rape-and-murder scene acted onstage the week before?
Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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