SummaryAcute alcohol intoxication during encoding can impair subsequent identification accuracy, but results across studies have been inconsistent, with studies often finding no effect. Little is also known about how alcohol intoxication affects the identification confidence–accuracy relationship. We randomly assigned women (N = 153) to consume alcohol (dosed to achieve a 0.08% blood alcohol content) or tonic water, controlling for alcohol expectancy. Women then participated in an interactive hypothetical sexual assault scenario and, 24 hours or 7 days later, attempted to identify the assailant from a perpetrator present or a perpetrator absent simultaneous line‐up and reported their decision confidence. Overall, levels of identification accuracy were similar across the alcohol and tonic water groups. However, women who had consumed tonic water as opposed to alcohol identified the assailant with higher confidence on average. Further, calibration analyses suggested that confidence is predictive of accuracy regardless of alcohol consumption. The theoretical and applied implications of our results are discussed.© 2017 The Authors Applied Cognitive Psychology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Previous research shows that feelings of vulnerability, as measured by fear of crime, are associated 16 with preferences for physically formidable and dominant mates (PPFDM), ostensibly because of the 17 physical protection such mates can afford. In the lab and in the field, we tested whether the 18 relationship between PPFDM and fear of crime is pronounced when the risk of crime is relatively 19 high, and for crimes that are evolutionarily more costly. In Study 1, women were presented with 20 daytime and night time images that featured a lone shadowy male figure, crime hotspots and 21 safespots, and they reported their risk of victimisation in the situation depicted in the image. In 22 Study 2, we had female participants walk through crime hotspots and safespots in a city centre 23 during the daytime, and had them report their perceived victimisation risk for different types of 24 crime, perpetrated by a male-versus female. Participants in Study 1 and 2 also completed a scale 25 that measures PPFDM. In both studies, we found that PPFDM was positively associated with fear of 26 crime in hotspots and in safespots. Additionally, fear of crime was significantly affected by risk 27 situation (i.e., safespot versus hotspot, night time versus daytime). The relationship between PPFDM 28 and fear, however, did not vary in relation to risk situation, perpetrator gender, or crime type, 29suggesting that the psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship between perceived risk of 30 victimisation and PPFDM are general in nature. Women who prefer physically formidable and 31 dominant mates tend to feel more at risk of crime, regardless of the situational risk factors present. 32

We tested whether there are age-related declines in detecting cues to trustworthiness, a skill that has been demonstrated to be rapid and automatic in younger adults. Young (M age D 21.2 years) and older (M age D 70.15 years) adults made criminal appearance judgments to unfamiliar faces, which were presented at a duration of 100, 500 or 1,000 ms. Participants' response times and judgment confidence were recorded. Older were poorer than young adults at judging trustworthiness at 100 ms, and were slower overall in making their judgments. Further, the cues (i.e. perceptions of anger, trustworthiness and happiness) underlying criminality judgments were the same across age groups. Judgment confidence increased with increasing exposure duration for both age groups, while older adults were less confident in their judgments overall than their young counterparts. The implications are discussed.

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