Crime Blindness: How Selective Attention and Inattentional Blindness Can Disrupt Eyewitness Awareness and Memory

Abstract

Most people are not constantly watching for crimes and accidents. They are instead focused on other tasks. When people are focused on other tasks, they may fail to see crimes that should be obvious, a phenomenon called crime blindness. This article describes research on crime blindness, other attention failures, and eyewitness memory. When their attention focuses on something other than the crime, potential witnesses will experience both awareness and memory problems. Crime blindness and other attention disruptions interfere with the ability of potential witnesses to notice a crime, remember details, and identify the culprit in a lineup. The application of this research leads to a more nuanced method of assessing the reliability of eyewitnesses based on attention focus. Expectations that people should notice unusual events, such as accidents and crimes, may be problematic when witnesses are focused on other activities.