title: Lawyers' questioning: the effect of confusing questions on witness confidence and accuracy.
abstract: The present study investigated the effect on witness confidence and accuracy of confusing questions often used by attorneys in court. Participants viewed a videotaped film and were individually questioned about the incident 1 week later. Half the participants were asked questions using six categories of confusing questions (negatives, double negatives, leading, multiple questions, complex syntax, and complex vocabulary); the remaining half were asked for the same information using simply phrased equivalents. Confusing questions reduced participant-witnesses' accuracy and suppressed confidence-accuracy relationships compared with the condition where simplified alternatives were asked. Witness performance was impaired by the fact that mock-witnesses rarely asked for a confusing question to be explained or qualified their answers. This experiment demonstrates the importance of ensuring that lawyers ask witnesses simple, clear, questions.
authors: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. m.kebbell@birmingham.ac.uk
authors: M R
authors: MR
authors: Kebbell
authors: S D
authors: SD
authors: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D006113:United Kingdom