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American Morning
Discussion with Dr. Gerald Post
Aired October 18, 2002 - 08:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We've been talking about the eyewitness accounts and this man who gave bogus information that was announced yesterday, and a lot of what he has said has been thrown out, the cream color of the van, this AK-74 rifle, that thrown out as well. However, we are still told that certain eyewitness accounts are in play.
Now, the question is this, how can two people see the same event and interpret it in completely different ways? I talked to Dr. Gerald Post, a psychiatrist, who went back to the scene of that Home Depot yesterday afternoon. His thoughts on what we see and interpret in our own minds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: We cannot recreate this scene because we were not here on Monday night, but we do know a couple of things. It is darker than it is now, and there is a little illumination when it is dark, but not much. Knowing all that and knowing that people have different stories and can account for different things, why is it that we see it differently?
GERALD POST, PSYCHIATRIST: It's a very natural human tendency to be uncomfortable and uncertainty. And the more we work things in our mind, the clearer and more certain it becomes.
HEMMER: We've been standing in this parking lot for half an hour, right? I count one, two, three, at least four white vans with silver ladders on top right now. How does that contribute, knowing that the police have talked about a white van for weeks now? How does that contribute to what I see?
POST: There is a natural predisposition to be searching for what we're prepared for, so even though there may have been a person in a quite different car, we will be ready to see what we are prepared to see.
HEMMER: People want to help, don't they? They want to help police find the evidence and contribute. Does that give a certain tendency to people giving wrong information, although the intentions are right?
POST: Everyone wants to help in this dreadful situation. And I think it's very important that people continue to come forward, but we must recognize eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. There have been a number of overturnings of convictions based on eyewitness accounts in recent years, where someone else confessed, and there was dead certainty on the part of that eyewitness. It was a very natural human tendency to want to make things clearer. If I'm there, and someone asks me, what do you see,? I, of course, should have seen something clearly, and not at the level of consciousness, really preconsciously, almost in a way. It's almost embarrassing to not see something that is right in front of my eyes.
HEMMER: To not help.
POST: That's right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Dr. Gerald Post, he has so many interesting things to say what people see and how they interpret it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 18, 2002 - 08:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We've been talking about the eyewitness accounts and this man who gave bogus information that was announced yesterday, and a lot of what he has said has been thrown out, the cream color of the van, this AK-74 rifle, that thrown out as well. However, we are still told that certain eyewitness accounts are in play.
Now, the question is this, how can two people see the same event and interpret it in completely different ways? I talked to Dr. Gerald Post, a psychiatrist, who went back to the scene of that Home Depot yesterday afternoon. His thoughts on what we see and interpret in our own minds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: We cannot recreate this scene because we were not here on Monday night, but we do know a couple of things. It is darker than it is now, and there is a little illumination when it is dark, but not much. Knowing all that and knowing that people have different stories and can account for different things, why is it that we see it differently?
GERALD POST, PSYCHIATRIST: It's a very natural human tendency to be uncomfortable and uncertainty. And the more we work things in our mind, the clearer and more certain it becomes.
HEMMER: We've been standing in this parking lot for half an hour, right? I count one, two, three, at least four white vans with silver ladders on top right now. How does that contribute, knowing that the police have talked about a white van for weeks now? How does that contribute to what I see?
POST: There is a natural predisposition to be searching for what we're prepared for, so even though there may have been a person in a quite different car, we will be ready to see what we are prepared to see.
HEMMER: People want to help, don't they? They want to help police find the evidence and contribute. Does that give a certain tendency to people giving wrong information, although the intentions are right?
POST: Everyone wants to help in this dreadful situation. And I think it's very important that people continue to come forward, but we must recognize eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. There have been a number of overturnings of convictions based on eyewitness accounts in recent years, where someone else confessed, and there was dead certainty on the part of that eyewitness. It was a very natural human tendency to want to make things clearer. If I'm there, and someone asks me, what do you see,? I, of course, should have seen something clearly, and not at the level of consciousness, really preconsciously, almost in a way. It's almost embarrassing to not see something that is right in front of my eyes.
HEMMER: To not help.
POST: That's right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Dr. Gerald Post, he has so many interesting things to say what people see and how they interpret it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
