ABSTRACT
The average juror is unaware of the factors that affect eyewitness reliability. When experts educate jurors, they usually testify after an eyewitness has incriminated the defendant. We hypothesized that early presentation of expert testimony would improve juror sensitivity to eyewitness reliability. Participants (N = 431) read a mock trial transcript with expert testimony presented before or after eyewitness testimony (plus an expert-absent control condition). The fairness of the eyewitness lineup procedure was also manipulated. Early expert testimony did not have the hypothesized benefit. Relative to late testimony, early testimony led jurors to become more skeptical of the eyewitness testimony and reduced defendant guilt ratings irrespective of lineup fairness. Nonetheless, the presence of expert testimony led to greater sensitivity to eyewitness reliability than the expert-absent control condition. These findings suggest that the presence, rather than timing, of expert testimony can educate jurors and influence sensitivity to the reliability of eyewitness evidence.