Expert Witness Credibility as a Function of Eye Contact Behavior and Gender

• NCJ Number: 225571
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 35 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 1515-1526
• Author(s): Tess M.S. Neal; Stanley L. Brodsky
• Date Published: December 2008
• Length: 12 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: University of Alabama
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the influence of gender and degree of eye contact on the credibility of the testimony of expert witnesses among undergraduate college students who viewed videos of reconstructed testimony by actors presented under varying degrees of eye contact with the questioning attorney and “mock jurors” (witnesses looking at the camera doing the videoing).

Abstract

The findings show that experts in the high eye-contact condition had significantly higher credibility ratings than experts in the medium and low eye-contact conditions. The male expert witnesses in the high and medium eye-contact conditions had significantly higher credibility ratings than in the low condition. These results suggest that eye contact is especially important for male expert witnesses; male experts should maintain high levels of eye contact for maximum credibility. Contrary to expectations, similar levels of credibility were attributed to women who maintained an assertive high level of eye contact and those who made nonassertive eye contact in the low and medium conditions. Researchers had hypothesized that more assertive female experts would lose credibility under a societal expectation that women should be nonassertive. The study found that ratings of witness credibility related to eye contact did not influence sentencing ratings for the case, which pertained to the probability that the defendant would commit violent criminal acts in the future. Participants consisted of 232 undergraduates (63 percent female) at a large, southeastern university. In each video presented to the participants, they saw either a female or male expert witness on the witness stand. The expert witness’s total eye contact was measured when he/she was looking either at the questioning attorney or the jurors (witness looking at the camera). Low, medium, and high eye contact was measured by 5, 30, and 50 seconds of eye contact in a 60-second period, respectively. 2 tables and 28 references