Eureka Prize awarded for research on witness credibility bias against domestic violence survivors

University of Sydney forensic psychologist Helen Paterson won the 2026 Eureka Prize for research showing that witnesses to repeated events — such as domestic violence survivors — are perceived as less honest and less credible than single-event witnesses. Paterson's work found that conflating episodes and reporting gist-like details are predictable features of memory for recurring trauma, not indicators of fabrication.