Dror 2005

• Sample


  27 university students (non-fingerprint experts) were given 96 pairs of fingerprints. Their task was to compare each fingerprint to its pair
• Procedure

  • Half fingerprints were clear and easy to match and half were ambiguous
  • Some were low emotion crimes (bike theft, burglary) and others were high emotion (murder and assault)
  • In some cases, subliminal messaging was used e.g. words like 'same' or 'guilty' flashed up on to the board
• Results

  • When participants were shown a high emotional use they were more likely to find a match between fingerprints (58%) compared to low emotional cases (49%)
  • When subliminal messages were added to emotional uses this rose to 66%