Source Confusion

Imagine the following hypothetical scenario: Zachary is brought into the police department for questioning after his apartment is broken into. The officer asks him a series of questions about the thief, including “How tall do you think the man was?” and “What color was the man’s sweatshirt?” After scouring his memory for details, Zachary provides the most accurate report possible. But despite his efforts, the department cannot identify a suspect that matches his description. 

Almost one year later, Zachary gets a call from the department informing him that they finally caught the culprit. As it turns out, the thief was not a man but a sixteen-year-old girl! How could this be possible?

Zachary fell victim to source misattribution by confusing the officer’s assumptions about the thief’s gender with his memory of the thief’s gender. All those prompting questions coaxed Zachary to form a vivid mental image of the culprit, believing he was digging deep into his memory to conjure the details. Meanwhile, if the officer had asked neutral questions—like “How tall was the thief?” or “What color was the thief wearing?”—Zachary would have been less likely to mistake her gender.