When children are abducted or missing, family members usually provide police with the child's school photographs, which show the child "cleaned up" and usually smiling. Researchers have found that these photos may not be as useful as they would like in helping the public identify the missing child.
'Dirty' Photos Work Better
Dr. Vicki Gier, assistant professor of psychology at Mississippi State, conducted two experiments to test the ability of adults to recognize children using school photos, in which the children appeared cleaned up, happy and smiling, and "dirtied up" photos, in which the children appeared dirty, sad, tired or angry.The study showed that adults recognized children better from the photos that matched the appearance of the child when they were asked to identify them later.
"My question was, if you happened to see a missing child with their perpetrator and the child is dirty or has been physically abused, would you be able to recognize that child from a photo of him or her smiling, clean and happy?" said Dr. Vicki Gier in a news release. "If an adult is shown two pictures of a child with similar appearance, both 'clean' or both 'dirty', recognition is good. However, if an adult sees two pictures of the same child but with differing appearance, then recognition is poor."
Keep Both Types of Photos Available
Therefore, Dr. Gier strongly recommends that parents have both types of pictures available in case their child is abducted or missing."If both types of facial appearance were shown to the public or possible eyewitnesses, the chances of recognizing the child may increase," said Gier.
Dr. Gier's study was published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology on Oct. 28, 2008.
