Event Title
Morality and Blame Conformity
Location
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
Start Date
30-4-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 3:55 PM
Project Type
Poster
Description
In the legal system, eyewitness testimonies play an important role in determining the outcomes of legal proceedings. However, memory is malleable and therefore has implications on the accuracy of eyewitness accounts. Memory can be altered by seemingly irrelevant factors such as the moral behavior of an agent. Additionally, memory conformity, which refers to the fact that a persons memory can be distorted due to social influence, often occurs due to eyewitness statements. Similar to memory conformity, blame conformity refers to the observation that a person can change the level of blame they attribute to an individual based on eyewitness statements. Our research examined the relationship between blame conformity and moral behavior in a two-person accident. We wanted to discover whether the moral behavior of an agent in conjunction with a eyewitness statement attributing blame to one individual would impact the level of blame a third party would attribute to the individuals involved in an accident. We predicted that when a person is labeled as morally good, people would attribute less blame to them, especially when an eyewitness blames the other person involved in the accident. Additionally, we expected that when someone is labeled as morally bad, people would attribute more blame to that person, and the level of blame would increase when the eyewitness also blames the morally bad individual for the accident. Finally, we examined whether memory is influenced by the manipulation of moral behavior. We believe that these results will offer more knowledge to those involved in legal proceedings that rely heavily on eyewitness statements.
Faculty Sponsor
Travis Carter
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Psychology Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Social Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1160
Morality and Blame Conformity
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
In the legal system, eyewitness testimonies play an important role in determining the outcomes of legal proceedings. However, memory is malleable and therefore has implications on the accuracy of eyewitness accounts. Memory can be altered by seemingly irrelevant factors such as the moral behavior of an agent. Additionally, memory conformity, which refers to the fact that a persons memory can be distorted due to social influence, often occurs due to eyewitness statements. Similar to memory conformity, blame conformity refers to the observation that a person can change the level of blame they attribute to an individual based on eyewitness statements. Our research examined the relationship between blame conformity and moral behavior in a two-person accident. We wanted to discover whether the moral behavior of an agent in conjunction with a eyewitness statement attributing blame to one individual would impact the level of blame a third party would attribute to the individuals involved in an accident. We predicted that when a person is labeled as morally good, people would attribute less blame to them, especially when an eyewitness blames the other person involved in the accident. Additionally, we expected that when someone is labeled as morally bad, people would attribute more blame to that person, and the level of blame would increase when the eyewitness also blames the morally bad individual for the accident. Finally, we examined whether memory is influenced by the manipulation of moral behavior. We believe that these results will offer more knowledge to those involved in legal proceedings that rely heavily on eyewitness statements.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/49