Susceptibility To Memory Errors Created by Leading Questions Based on The Perceived Authority of Interviewer

It has been well established that memory of an event can be modified by introducing misinformation through questioning. This study fills a gap in the research literature by testing the potential relationship between perceived authority and susceptibility to misinformation. This was measured through showing participants a video of a traffic accident and asking them questions about the events they witnessed. Participants were also asked to rate their confidence in the correctness of each answer to determine if there are any correlations between authority, correct answers, misinformation, and confidence. Authority was conveyed through the clothing worn by the researcher during each experiment, with different outfits creating high and low authority conditions. All participants were shown the same video stimulus and asked the same set of questions based on previous research. This study showed that questions containing misinformation can affect a person's memory and confidence when answering questions. The results also showed a significant interaction between high authority and the presence of misinformation that further decreased confidence scores. Due to the limited number of participants, the impact of the interaction between authority and misinformation on the percentage of correct answers was not significant. While the present study was unable to meet the N from the power analysis, the results justify future research on the topic. Examining the relationship between authority and susceptibility to misinformation, this study expands understanding of the social factors that shape memory reliability and provides a foundation for future research on authority and eyewitness credibility.