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Replications and Limitations of a Two‐Factor Model of Child Witness Credibility
Author(s) -
Ross David F.,
Jurden Frank H.,
Lindsay R. C. L.,
Keeney Jennifer M.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01903.x
Subject(s) - witness , honesty , credibility , psychology , verdict , social psychology , recreation , cognition , perception , developmental psychology , law , neuroscience , political science
Two experiments are reported that test the idea that jurors perceive child witnesses in terms of a 2‐factor model of credibility with the factors defined as cognitive ability and honesty (Leippe & Romanczyk, 1987; Ross, Millers, & Moran, 1989). In the first experiment, 300 mock jurors watched a realistic videotaped recreation of a sexual abuse trial and rated the credibility of the child witness. Mock jurors perceived the child witness in terms of 2 factors: cognitive ability and honesty. Only honesty predicted verdict. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2 ( N = 300) when only the child's testimony was presented and the perceptions of the child witness were not contaminated by the testimony of the other witnesses in the trial.