“… Showing how their face varies in different lighting and with different emotions, different days, maybe different hairstyles with without makeup or longer, shorter facial hair. So just showing how that face varies improves our familiarity with the face. Which then increases our chances that we’re going to notice them and recognize them if we encounter them later on…”
Stefana Juncu
Description
Can we recognize a missing person when they stand in front of us? Dr. Stefana Juncu shares with us her research on how accurate visual identification of a missing person can be. She explains the most effective ways for a public appeal to be successul in engaging the public in the recovery of a missing person.
Guest
Dr. Stefana Juncu
Dr Stefana Juncu is a lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. She showed an interest in missing persons appeals from very early on, when she completed her undergraduate dissertation in collaboration with the Missing People charity. For her PhD studies (completed in 2022) and her current research she focuses on finding ways of improving the use of missing persons appeals, by looking into the effects of the type of images and the type of written information included in these appeals. Her research also looks at the reasons people engage with missing persons appeals on social media, as well as the public’s perception of risk involved in these cases.