It Was Him or Him or Him

Malcom Gladwell has some interesting comments on the Duke lacrosse rape case -- not who did or did not do what to whom, but whether the eyewitness accounts of the alleged victims and others are reliable. As Gladwell notes, there is research showing that a particular problem exists when, as in the Duke case, persons of one race are asked to identify persons of another race.

By the way, I recently read Gladwell's book Blink, which I enjoyed quite a bit. It is full of interesting stuff on why, as with the issue above, things are not always what they seem.