| dc.description |
Research on the nature, intentions, and implementation of the American police interrogation
process has shown that interrogators employ psychologically manipulative techniques designed
to achieve their objective: eliciting a confession, be it true or false. Since confessionary evidence
is among the most compelling forms of trial evidence used to determine a suspects¿ guilt or
innocence, false confessions pose a significant risk for wrongful convictions and miscarriages of
justice. In order to better understand how society can protect against false confession, the present
study investigated the causes, underlying psychological processes, and effects of false
confessions. Based on cognitive dissonance theory research, the study predicts that the
counterattitudinal act of making a false confession produces dissonance, which motivates people
to reduce this psychological discomfort through attitude change. By creating a situation that
would allow the experimenter to accuse truly innocent participants of an alleged wrongdoing and
simulate a three-stage interrogation situation, this study demonstrated that participants faced with
certain interrogation pressures do falsely confess to actions that they did not commit and do
come to adopt confession-consistent beliefs. The study explored various relationships between
participants¿ confession behavior, reported degrees of belief, perceived choice in making their
confession, and the stage of the interrogation process at which they confessed. The legal,
psychological, and conceptual implications of this study are discussed and future courses of
study are suggested. |
|