Hall and Player

• Sample

  70 finger prints experts from the metropolitan police were used - their mean experience was 11 years
• Procedure

  • Participants had to look at £50 notes that had an ambiguous fingerprint transposed on it. They had to find a fingerprint match
  • Half the participants were told the fingerprint tried to pay for goods with the £50 note (low emotion group) and the other half were told it belonged to someone suspected of two firing gunshots (high emotion group)
  • After analysing fingerprints participants chose if it matched or not
  • They were then given a questionnaire of how they made their decision and recorded if they read the crime report and if it affected their decision
• Results

  • There was no significant difference between the high and low emotional groups, but participants believed it did effect their decision
• Conclusion

  • Emotional context does not reduce a significant expert's ability to make a decision
  • Many chose not to read the report