Effects of Question Wording on Eyewitness Testimony
Abstract
This study examined the effect of the wording of interview questions on eyewitness testimony. Participants were male and female college students (Mean age = 19.1). Participants were presented with a short video of a vehicle accident. They were then given a questionnaire consisting of six items. To study the impact of question wording on testimony, the wording of one of the items was changed between two conditions. This item asked either how fast the vehicles were traveling when they “contacted” each other, or how fast the vehicles were traveling when they “smashed into” each other. On average, participants in the “smashed into” condition reported slightly higher speed estimations than participants in the “contacted” condition. However, the difference between the two groups was not large enough to be statistically significant.References
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