Abstract
Objectives
Prospective person memory refers to situations where one is asked to be on the lookout for a missing or wanted individual. Some researchers have hypothesized that because people see missing person alerts for multiple people over a period of time, that people habituate to missing persons alerts much like they do to car alarms. The purpose of this research was to test that hypothesis.
Methods
Some participants saw three different mock missing person videos, depicting three different target individuals, with one video being shown on each of 3 days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). Other participants engaged in unrelated tasks on the first 2 days and saw a single mock missing person video on the third day. All participants were told that if they saw a person from a mock missing person video and contacted the experimenters they would win a cash prize. On the final day of the study, the target individual was located in the hallway a short distance from the experiment room in a location that participants had to pass on their way out of the building.
Results
Correct sightings of the target individual were significantly lower in the multiple video condition than in the single video condition.
Conclusions
The results suggest that overuse of missing person alert systems can decrease their effectiveness in a manner consistent with a “car alarm” effect.
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Lampinen, J.M., Moore, K.N. Missing person alerts: does repeated exposure decrease their effectiveness?. J Exp Criminol 12, 587–598 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-016-9263-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-016-9263-1