The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of prior familiarity with a perpetrator and gender stereotypes on eyewitness recall and identification accuracy. Participants (N = 257) watched a crime video where the perpetrator was either someone they had never met before (unfamiliar/stranger condition), or was someone with whom they had a 1 minute exposure to prior to the crime (familiar condition). In the familiar conditions the 1 minute exposure included the target talking about their occupation; this occupation was either consistent or inconsistent with gender role stereotypes. There were no significant differences in recall accuracy or identification accuracy between the familiar or stereotypes conditions. However, when participants were asked to rate the degree to which they viewed the target as stereotype consistent versus inconsistent, higher stereotype consistency ratings were associated with reporting more total descriptors and higher proportions of correct descriptors (although this relationship was only marginally significant). On the other hand, lower stereotype consistency ratings predicted more correct identification decisions. It was hypothesized that cognitive load would influence familiar eyewitnesses memory such that eyewitnesses introduced to an inconsistent target would have better recall and identification accuracy. These hypotheses were based on previous research suggesting that memory is enhanced for stereotype inconsistent information when under low cognitive load. These hypotheses were not supported by the results as there were no group differences in ratings on the cognitive load measures. Overall, the results from the current study suggest that a 1 minute exposure to the target prior to the crime may not be enough exposure to elicit a feeling of familiarity and enhance eyewitness memory. These results also suggest that subjective gender role stereotypes influence memory for a previously met person. Conclusions and future directions are discussed.
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