The featural justification effect occurs when an eyewitness provides a confidence statement at a lineup identification referencing a facial feature or component that aided them in their identification (Dodson & Dobolyi, Law and Human Behavior, 39(3), 266–280, 2015, Psychology Crime & Law, 23, 487–508, 2017, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24(4), 543–563, 2018; Slane & Dodson, Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 8(1), 60–67, 2019). The result of the effect, found across several manipulations, is jurors tend to discredit the confidence of an eyewitness that references a facial feature (e.g., eyes, nose). The current studies examined featural justifications, along with eyewitness viewing conditions and legal safeguards. Participants were presented with either expert testimony (study 1) or jury instruction (study 2 & 3) with the aim of sensitizing mock jurors to eyewitness factors in the case, as well as alleviating the featural justification effect. All three studies replicated the featural justification effect and found a main effect of viewing condition on verdict, such that good viewing conditions resulted in more guilty verdicts than bad viewing conditions. Other findings varied between the studies. The studies contribute to research on the featural justification effect and include discussion of implications for cases including eyewitness evidence.
