Can knowledge of another person's decision bias fingerprint examinations?

Thumbnail Image
Date
2017-04-01
Authors
Huet, AnnMarie
Major Professor
Advisor
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Authors
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Organizational Unit
Psychology
The Department of Psychology may prepare students with a liberal study, or for work in academia or professional education for law or health-services. Graduates will be able to apply the scientific method to human behavior and mental processes, as well as have ample knowledge of psychological theory and method.
Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Series
Honors Projects and Posters
University Honors Program

The Honors project is potentially the most valuable component of an Honors education. Typically Honors students choose to do their projects in their area of study, but some will pick a topic of interest unrelated to their major.

The Honors Program requires that the project be presented at a poster presentation event. Poster presentations are held each semester. Most students present during their senior year, but may do so earlier if their honors project has been completed.

This site presents project descriptions and selected posters for Honors projects completed since the Fall 2015 semester.

Department
Psychology
Abstract

Researchers have recently voiced their concerns regarding bias in forensic testing. For example, fingerprint experts are brought a suspect sample and asked to confirm whether this sample matches the crime sample. Only if an expert determines a “match”, the same prints are sent to another expert to verify the match. So, if an examiner is asked to perform a verification evaluation, they know that another examiner already said that they match. This knowledge creates an expectation that the prints will match and biases the second examiner’s evaluation. We used fingerprint materials to test how much participants were biased to agree with a false previous participant’s decision planted in the experiment room. The previous participants’ judgment acted as a form of contextual information, similar to the experience by fingerprint expert, which can lead to biases. In this study, there was no significant effect of the planted match decision on the final match decision that participants made. However, confidence means were significantly higher when participants saw the prior participant’s sheet and made a decision consistent with the expectation created by the sheet. So, experts may express more confidence to authorities when confirming another individual’s decision, which may affect investigations.

Comments
Description
Keywords
Citation
DOI
Source
Copyright