School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Law Hum Behav. 2010 Oct;34(5):367-78. doi: 10.1007/s10979-009-9204-x.
Several factors influence the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence. Typically, recognition for same-race faces is better than for different-race faces (the own-race bias), and alcohol intoxication decreases overall face recognition accuracy. This research investigated how alcohol intoxication influences the own-race bias. Asian and European participants completed tests of recognition memory for Asian and European faces when either mildly intoxicated (mean breath alcohol concentration of .05) or when sober. Compared to their sober counterparts, intoxicated participants showed a reduced own-race bias. Specifically, alcohol intoxication had a larger negative effect on the recognition of same-race faces compared to different-race faces. The legal and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.
几种因素会影响目击证人识别证据的可靠性。通常，同种族面孔的识别要好于不同种族面孔的识别（即本族偏向），而且酒精中毒会降低整体面部识别的准确性。本研究调查了酒精中毒如何影响本族偏向。亚洲和欧洲的参与者在轻度醉酒（平均呼气酒精浓度为.05）或清醒时，完成了对亚洲和欧洲面孔的识别记忆测试。与清醒时的参与者相比，醉酒的参与者表现出本族偏向的减少。具体来说，与不同种族的面孔相比，酒精中毒对同种族面孔的识别影响更大。讨论了这些结果在法律和理论上的意义。
