Slow motion replays are a common video evidence tool in sports or in the legal system which offer the opportunity to (re-)evaluate critical situations. However, current studies have shown that slow motion replays cannot only enhance precision and decision-making by offering a more detailed view but might come with several biases. Specifically, research has revealed that actions (such as foul plays or crime actions) which are replayed in slow motion are perceived to take longer and rated to be more intentional (often also influencing the severity of related sanctions).
We recently observed that rather than overestimating the original duration per se, participants apparently fail to recognize the degree a video was slowed down (leading to an erroneous backward calculation into real time). In fact, we detected that providing explicit video speed information can eliminate the time overestimation bias.
In a second step, we now scrutinized if not only the time overestimation, but also the overestimation of intentionality can be reduced by this explicit additional information. To this end, a series of experiments was conducted in which participants watched videos of different sport fouls and were asked to evaluate original duration, intentionality and time the foul players had at disposition to plan their actions. Results revealed the hypothesized overestimations (reflected by increased ratings for slow motion videos) and that explicit video speed information could reduce these biases to different extents. Potential mechanisms underlying these cognitive-evaluative biases of time and intentionality as well as practical implications and open questions will be discussed.