"Older Eyewitnesses Less Reliable"

Read the full story by Christopher Lee in The Washington Post, February 26, 2007.

A recent study indicated that older (60 to 80 years of age) subjects and younger (college age) subjects were both comparably likely to believe that they recalled seeing something in a video that was not there but was suggested to be there in a question asked by the researcher. "But older people were much more likely to be confident that they had the details right when in fact they were wrong."

Comment: The quality of information on which decisions are made is obviously very important. What someone tells you is simply what they tell you, not fact. Indeed, what people remember is also not necessarily what happened. It can be useful to ask about the confidence that a person has in what they tell you, but this research suggests that the confidence reading may itself be inaccurate. JAD