When experience does not promote expertise: security professionals fail to detect low prevalence fake IDs

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Forensic Science
• Human Factors

Background:

• Professional screeners in security, bartending, and retail verify identification, a critical task for law enforcement.
• Novice participants exhibit a low prevalence effect (LPE), failing to detect fake IDs when they are rare.
• The LPE's impact on professional screeners remains under-investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether professional screeners are susceptible to the low prevalence effect (LPE) in fake ID detection.
• To compare the ID verification accuracy of professional screeners against non-professionals.
• To determine if professional experience or training influences ID-matching performance.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted comparing professional screeners (security, bar, access) with non-professionals.
• Participants evaluated the authenticity of identification documents, including rare fake IDs.
• A Professional Identity Training Questionnaire assessed the impact of experience and training.

Main Results:

• All participants, regardless of professional status, were susceptible to the low prevalence effect (LPE).
• Neither the type/duration of professional experience nor training significantly improved ID verification accuracy.
• No significant differences in performance were observed between professional groups and non-professionals.

Conclusions:

• Professional screeners are not immune to the low prevalence effect (LPE) in fake ID detection.
• Current professional experience and training do not mitigate the LPE in ID verification tasks.
• Addressing the LPE is crucial for improving real-world ID screening accuracy and security.