On the Psychology of Confessions: Does Innocence Put Innocents at Risk?

Applying Deception Detection to True and False Confessions: A Novel Approach to Conducting Experiments in Legal Psychology

“…This forces a suspect to balance the immediate benefits of falsely confessing against the eventual risk and cost of prosecution. Those suspects who believe that their innocence will eventually be brought to light despite a false confession in the immediate future are more likely to give a false confession in interrogation (Gudjonsson, 2003;Kassin, 2005).…”

Evolutionary Psychology and False Confession.

“…Because his work strikes at the heart of the American criminal justice systemits fairness-the value of Kassin's (2005) empirical points cannot be understated. Here, we offer a complementary model of the psychology of false confession, one that articulates many of Kassin's insights through the language of evolutionary psychology.…”

“…Allies may come to an individual's physical defense when hostile in-group members seek retribution; they may speak on behalf of the individual; they may make alternative retributive deals (e.g., proffering scarce resources) that salvage the individual's freedom; or they may blackmail potential punishers, yielding the same salvaging effect. This helps us to understand why false confessions are frequently elicited as a result of the minimization tactics described by Kassin (2005) in which interrogators assume the role of confidante. Confession can serve as a signal of commitment to others because it reduces the likelihood of defection from a relationship (Hong, 1998;Rogers & Holloway, 1993;Shackelford & Buss, 1996).…”

“…Interrogation tactics that assume these conditions, such as those that imply a confidential relationship between the suspect and the interrogator (e.g., "it's just me and you here"), are likely also to evoke confessions. Kassin's (2005) review of the psychology of confession identifies key investigative practices in the context of which innocence places innocents at risk. An evolutionary psychological perspective provides a coherent, comprehensive framework for integrating work on false confessions with recent research on confession as strategic information management.…”

“…In a recent study with inmates of Arkansas penitentiaries, all of whom pled guilty to their offenses, it was found that retrospective "urge to confess" feelings were significantly and positively correlated with the number of people who knew that the individual had committed the crime (Bering, Shackelford, & Johnson, 2005). Kassin (2005) describes several standard police interrogation tactics-including lying about evidence, witnesses, and/or informants-that may contribute to the production of false confessions. Punishment is the product of the group's belief in the individual's guilt rather than the veridical truth of the individual's guilt or innocence.…”