Research has shown that judges and jurors are influenced by suspect ethnicity and that they might discriminate against out-group suspects in making decisions. This study examined the tendency to favor in-group members, as predicted by social identity theory, in assessing alibi credibility. Forty Israeli-Jewish and 40 Israeli-Arab participants assessed the credibility of an alibi statement provided by a suspect who was either Israeli-Jewish or Israeli-Arab. Findings show that participants were more likely to believe the alibi when it was provided by an in-group suspect than by an out-group suspect, supporting intergroup bias in alibi credibility assessments. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

研究表明，法官和陪审员会受到嫌疑人种族的影响，并且他们在做出决定时可能会歧视外群体嫌疑人。本研究考察了在评估不在场证明可信度时偏爱群体内成员的倾向，正如社会认同理论所预测的那样。40 名以色列犹太人和 40 名以色列阿拉伯人参与者评估了嫌疑人提供的不在犯罪现场陈述的可信度，嫌疑人是以色列犹太人或以色列阿拉伯人。研究结果表明，当群体内嫌疑人提供不在场证明时，参与者更有可能相信不在场证明，而不是群体外嫌疑人，这支持了不在犯罪现场可信度评估中的群体间偏见。讨论了实践和理论意义。