I was interviewed for a brief segment on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday. The segment was entitled “The Truth about Lies” and was part of a feature called “The Fast Draw” by Josh Landis and Mitch Butler. The impetus for the interview was last month’s allegation by journalist Brian Deer that some of the evidence Andrew Wakefield used in promoting a vaccine/autism link was fraudulent. As I and many others have noted, there is no evidence for a link between vaccines and autism. But, the lack of evidence hasn’t dissuaded people from believing that there is a link. The question is why people hold onto beliefs about perceived causes and risks when there is little evidence.
The segment is about 2.5 minutes long, and features an animated version of me (apparently, television adds a few pounds and some facial hair, even for animated people). Overall, I thought the did a nice job (excepting, perhaps, some of the neurobabble).
In case the embed code doesn’t work, here’s the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7299406n
Fritz: There have been a number of experiments like that, in which a robbery is staged and then experimenters look at how well the witnesses remember the perpetrator. I don’t know of one that fits your description, though (are you sure you remember it correctly :-). This sort of staged event has been done on television many times as well. Dateline filmed a nice segment some years ago in a law school class. They staged a purse snatching in the classroom and then interviewed the students afterward.
Many years ago I heard of an experiment put on by a professor running class on eye-witnesses in a crime lab course for 30 law enforcement students.
as I heard it, in the middle of the class, three heavily bearded men crashed through the double doors on the side of the classroom. One was holding the Panamanian flag, another was holding a banana like a gun and another was playing some sort of musical instrument. They were in the classroom for less than 30 seconds and then they ran out of the room.
The professor then instructed the class to give their personal eye-witness report of exactly what happened. The results were hysterical with everyone giving a totally different “eye-witness” account of what was going on.
I would like to find a copy of that experiment. Do you have any idea where to get it?
Thanks.