How social influence affects children’s witness reports

Sammanfattning: Eyewitnesses to criminal events often discuss their experiences with each other. This can have serious consequences considering the fact that information received from others can have a detrimental effect on people’s memory reports. The aim of the present thesis is to investigate the extent to which children’s witness reports are affected by social influence. Specifically, it investigates whether information from another person can make children add false details to their reports of an event, as well as to omit true details. In both studies, children were interviewed about a previously experienced event. During this event, there were critical details that were either present or absent. When questioned about these details, the children could therefore make two types of errors: omission or commission errors. Social influence consisted of a statement from another witness, which the children encountered either live (Study I), or via video (Study II). In Study I, children (N = 174) from two age groups were compared (7 and 12 year-olds). Further, the effect of influence was examined for two different types of details (central and peripheral). The results showed that the effect of social influence was larger for commission errors than for omission errors, and that the children made more errors with respect to a peripheral detail than a central detail. Younger children did not make more errors than older children. In Study II, the target detail was a person inside a car (a passenger). The participating children (N = 176) were 11-12 years old and received social influence from either an adult or a peer child. The results showed that social influence had an effect on the children’s reports. The effect was similar for both commission and omission errors. Social influence did not have a larger effect when it was delivered by an adult (vs. a peer child). All children who reported a passenger (whether this was false or true) could provide further descriptions about his appearance and actions when probed. Finally, 87% of the children made an identification from a target-absent lineup. In sum, the present thesis shows that children are vulnerable to social influence and, as a consequence, they may make incorrect reports about a personally experienced, live event. Overall, social influence had a stronger effect for commission errors than for omission errors. However, the effect of influence depended on what type of detail the influence concerned. The results also showed that children might follow up a false report by providing additional information, and even by falsely identifying a foil.