Eyewitnesses to crimes may seek the perpetrator on social media prior to participating in a formal identification procedure, but the effect of this citizen enquiry on the accuracy of eyewitness identification is unclear. The current study used a between-participants design to address this question. Participants viewed a crime video, and after a 1–2-day delay were either exposed to social media including the perpetrator, exposed to social media that substituted an innocent suspect for the perpetrator, or not exposed to social media. Seven days after viewing the crime video, all participants made an identification from a video lineup. It was predicted that exposure to social media that did not contain the guilty suspect would reduce the accuracy of subsequent identifications. Analysis revealed no association between social media exposure and lineup response for target present lineups. For target absent lineups, there was a significant association between social media exposure and lineup response, but this was driven by a higher number of correct rejections for participants who saw the guilty suspect on social media. The results suggest that at least in some circumstances, witnesses searching social media do not have a negative effect on formal ID procedures.

犯罪的目击者可以在参加正式的身份查验程序之前在社交媒体上寻找肇事者，但是尚不清楚此公民查询对目击者查证的准确性的影响。当前的研究使用参与者之间的设计来解决这个问题。参与者观看了犯罪视频，经过1-2天的延迟后，要么暴露于包括犯罪者在内的社交媒体，要么暴露于用无辜嫌疑人代替犯罪者的社交媒体上，要么不暴露于社交媒体。观看犯罪视频后的7天，所有参与者都从视频阵容中进行了识别。据预测，暴露于不包含有罪嫌疑人的社交媒体将降低随后身份证明的准确性。分析显示社交媒体曝光与针对目标当前阵容的阵容响应之间没有关联。对于目标缺席的阵容，社交媒体曝光与阵容响应之间存在显着关联，但这是由于在社交媒体上看到有罪嫌疑人的参与者被正确拒绝的次数增加所致。结果表明，至少在某些情况下，搜索社交媒体的证人不会对正式的身份证程序产生负面影响。