Prospective person memory and own-race bias of missing person appeals

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine own-race bias (ORB) in prospective person memory (PPM) and explore whether the effects of ORB were moderated by two factors that are salient to real-world missing person appeals (MPAs): the number of appeals an individual encounters and the frequency in which these appeals are encountered. Design/methodology/approach A mixed experimental design was used whereby 269 Caucasian participants studied MPAs (4 or 8 appeals) for various frequencies (once or three times), which featured both white and non-white missing individuals. Participants then completed a PPM sorting task that required them to identify missing individuals as a secondary objective. Findings ORB was not observed for prospective person memory performance, although participants did demonstrate a greater conservative bias for appeals involving different ethnicities. The main effect of number and frequency of appeals on PPM was significant, however, these variables did not moderate ORB. Research limitations/implications The current study has limitations that should be taken into consideration. There was an underrepresentation of non-white ethnicities within the sample which limits the ability to determine if ORB effects vary across ethnicities. Additionally, experimental simulations of missing person identifications still lack ecological validity and thus future innovative methods are required to study missing person identifications more realistically. Originality/value This study demonstrates that PPM performance may not be influenced by ORB effects overall as found within previous generic memory tasks, although the influence of the number and frequency of appeals presented continues to demonstrate the need to improve MPAs to maximise public facial recognition and identification of missing persons.