THE EFFECTS OF SAME-RACE BIAS ON MEMORY AND PERCEPTION

Yuhan Dong, Larry Kwon, George Lin, Katarina Madiraca, Ahmed Meleis, Elizabeth Ortiz, Daphne Oz, Nilay Patel, Anam Qureshi, Patrick Rastelli, Dipal Shah

Advisor: Dr. Patrick Dolan
Assistant: Jennifer Sissman

The accuracy of eyewitness identification and the effect of Own-Race Bias (ORB) on subjects’ ability to identify a suspect were examined in a single experiment. Sixty-nine subjects viewed one of two videotapes of a staged theft; in one videotape, the perpetrator was Caucasian, and in the other, Asian. The subjects then attempted to identify the perpetrator from a lineup. Data regarding the participants’ racial backgrounds and that of their friends’ was collected through a questionnaire and then analyzed. The effects of ORB were not evident in the analysis of our data so several explanations for this lack of substantiation were explored

Paper

(Acrobat pdf file: 631 kb)

Presentation

(Acrobat pdf file: 2.0 Mb)

Team Project Picture (jpg: 280 kb)

Return to Team Projects