Are You Sure That's The Guy?

[Omnizoa]

So I was flipping through this psychology magazine (which I'm now convinced is pretty crap) and there was this brief article in the unreliability of eyewitnesses identifying the actual suspect in a line-up:

DNA tests have made it clear that many innocent people have been sent to prison after a witness picked them out of a lineup. Between 1989 and 2016, more than 70% of the 337 wrongful convictions identified in the US had been influenced by misidentification from eyewitnesses...

...a simple procedure could help reduce the risk of misidentification: ask the eyewitnesses about their confidence level when they pick someone from a lineup...

...Numerous studies during the past few decades have examined how to minimalize the possibility that witnesses will finger an innocent prrson, and they have settled on showing people the photographs one by one, instead of all together...

..."The important part of this article is that witness confidence did a good job of helping sort between accurate and mistaken witnesses."...

..."the word has not gotten out."
"The word has not gotten out"...

Hey guys! Didja hear? Decisions are not always convictions! THAT'S AMAZING! MINDBLOWING, IN FACT! Whoulda thought that there might be some degree of error or uncertainty in such things???


Seriously though, ypu know what really bothers me about this whole article? That this is a psychology magazine, tbat's not even the whole article, and NEVER ONCE does it break away from ambivalently parroting statistics and simply ask, "Why is this even a problem?"

Why DO people pick the wrong guy in the first place?

They can't look so similar that the whopping 33% of misidentifications this article claimed to poll were purely because the line-up was full of look-alikes. The article even gets into double-blind lineups, insisting that the administrator could be a cause for **** ups presumably because they either have no poker face or are secretly conspiring to get the wrong guy fingered.

Really??? ****** police officers and conspiracies are more likely than the pressure of choice?

Think about it: If someone briefly flashes a playing card at you, conceals it, mixes in a handful of other cards from the deck and presents them all at once and says, "pick", doesn't some part of you naturally assume that one of them must be it? That there is no second lineup?

If the entire deck were presented one card at a time, then you aren't asking "Which one is it?" which suggests one of them is, but "Is this one it?" which invites doubt into the test taker.

Even before we start gauging levels of certainty, this concept bothers me.

What do you think?

[Sexy Celebrity]

Yes, I've heard about this kind of thing before. People think THEY KNOW they have the right person, but they don't, at all. Sometimes they're WAY off. I think a lot of people simply believe they can't be wrong.

[Topsy]

i saw a documentary back in the day pre youtube and its "social tests",and they tested things like this.
in one example they had an elderly well dressed woman and a young boy dressed in a hoodie and saggy pants,she then kicked him in the leg or something and started pulling him,the crowd then separated the two,holding him back whilst helping her. several witnessess then gave statements saying they had seen him trying to rob her-and they werent even lying,they genuinly thought that thats what they had seen

preconceptions have such an impact on us subconsciously

[Sexy Celebrity]

That's exactly it, Topsy. We have automatic, built-in prejudices.

[Sexy Celebrity]

It's why I think Hillary Clinton has an advantage over Donald Trump. People don't wanna question anything wrong she may be doing. They see a sweet old woman when she just shuts her mouth and lets Donald open his.

[Omnizoa]

i saw a documentary back in the day pre youtube and its "social tests",and they tested things like this.
in one example they had an elderly well dressed woman and a young boy dressed and a hoodie and saggy pants,she then kicked him in the leg or something and started pulling him,the crowd then separated the two,holding him back whilst helping her. several witnessess then gave statements saying they had seen him trying to rob her-and they werent even lying,they genuinly thought that thats what they had seen

preconceptions have such an impact on us subconsciously
That's messed up.

[Gatsby]

It's why I think Hillary Clinton has an advantage over Donald Trump. People don't wanna question anything wrong she may be doing. They see a sweet old woman when she just shuts her mouth and lets Donald open his.
I see a wrinkly prune, but whatever.

[Topsy]

It's why I think Hillary Clinton has an advantage over Donald Trump. People don't wanna question anything wrong she may be doing. They see a sweet old woman when she just shuts her mouth and lets Donald open his.


I dont know anything about Hillarys politics but Donald Trump is an openly racisist,woman hater with ***** for brains.

However,Hillary does not have an advatage in politics as she is woman. thats were where those stereotypes come in play again.

[Sexy Celebrity]

However, Hillary does not have an advatage in politics as she is woman. thats were where those stereotypes come in play again.

Being a woman is helping Hillary Clinton.

It might not have helped her a century ago, but it's helping her in 2016. It's helping her because a female president hasn't been done before and people just wanna see it finally happen.

[Topsy]

it might help her getting votes from the female gp right now,but its not gonna help her in her job. and i dont think it would have helped her she had some decent opponents

[honeykid]

Being a woman helps and hinders her, but I think it's often down to her opponent and the mindset of the person you're talking to. It's a flag of convenience for someone who doesn't really have any reason to vote for Hillary, but definitely doesn't want to vote for Trump and it's another reason to vote for her for a liberal mind. We've got the black thing out of the way, now it's time for a woman.

But I'm sure there are people who just wouldn't vote for a female President simply because they can't see a woman doing the job. Frankly, I wonder if the name Clinton is more of a hindrance to her than being a woman with a good number of people.

[Topsy]

Yeah,i would have had some trouble with her,sadly,because of her husbands mess.
im sure thats not what you ment,but i have some problem with women coming out smiling like nodding dolls holding their husbands hand after hes been caught sleeping around with teenagers.

also the fact that he got off so lightly whilst her (Monicas) life was left in ruins.

Id have so much more respect for her had she dumped his ass.

[Sexy Celebrity]

We've got the black thing out of the way, now it's time for a woman.

That's the whole problem with elections in the US now. It's all about just trying to appear progressive. I knew in 2012 that Hillary was gonna be next. The next president, after Hillary if she wins, is gonna be gay or something or he'll just be very liberal like Bernie Sanders and make all drugs legal. Or at least just marijuana.

[honeykid]

Yeah,i would have had some trouble with her,sadly,because of her husbands mess.
im sure thats not what you ment,but i have some problem with women coming out smiling like nodding dolls holding their husbands hand after hes been caught sleeping around with teenagers.

also the fact that he got off so lightly whilst her life was left in ruins.

Id have so much more respect for her had she dumped his ass.
Hillary stayed with him because he's her best bet to become President. Hell, there might be an argument that that was the reason she pushed him so hard to become President in the first place. It's almost certain wouldn't have gotten there without her. He was her master key. As a woman, the best chance she had of becoming President was to first be the First Lady.

That's the whole problem with elections in the US now. It's all about just trying to appear progressive. I knew in 2012 that Hillary was gonna be next. The next president, after Hillary if she wins, is gonna be gay or something or he'll just be very liberal like Bernie Sanders and make all drugs legal. Or at least just marijuana.
I don't think there's anything wrong with being progressive. Frankly, with such a poor pool of candidates, maybe it's the best way of choosing someone? I can certainly think of worse ways of choosing.

As for eyewitnesses and prejudices. That's humans. It's not anything new and it's served us well in our evolution.

[Sexy Celebrity]

Hillary stayed with him because he's her best bet to become President.

Which is why she's disgusting.

Hell, there might be an argument that that was the reason she pushed him so hard to become President in the first place.


They're a freak show. All these rumors and things that she herself is a lesbian, that she allows him to have extra women, etc. People are just gonna allow that freak show back into the White House and back into the media again.

I don't think there's anything wrong with being progressive. Frankly, with such a poor pool of candidates, maybe it's the best way of choosing someone? I can certainly think of worse ways of choosing.

The Democrats had a poor pool of candidates because nobody wanted to get in Clinton's way. The Republicans were overflowing.

[honeykid]

Overflowing with horrible candidates? I'd agree with that.

[Omnizoa]

As much as my own opinions would provide an interesting contrast to this little election debate, let's not make this about that.

[Sexy Celebrity]

As much as my own opinions would provide an interesting contrast to this little election debate, let's not make this about that.
OHHHHHHHH, this thread was going nowhere till we came in.

[Sexy Celebrity]

Nobody is gonna start caring about what you do, Omnizoa, until you start giving people rep points. I noticed you think you're too cool for school when it comes to rep.

[Omnizoa]

Nobody is gonna start caring about what you do, Omnizoa, until you start giving people rep points. I noticed you think you're too cool for school when it comes to rep.
If there was a negative rep system I wouldn't care, but when there's only positive rep, I want mine to count.