False Confessions 2

What is the Strategic Use of Evidence?

technique used as an alternative but more effective way to interview and detect deception

trains interviewers to withhold and reveal incriminating evidence in a planned, strategic way, rather than showing it all at once

(Hartwig & Granhag, 2006)

What did H and G do?

in a training study, interviewers trained in SUE identified liars/truth tellers more accurately than untrained interviewers

What are the 4 main stages in SUE?

pre interview planning - interviewer reviews all available evidence and plans when and how to use it during the interview

free recall (statement) - suspect first gives an open, uninterrupted acct which can later be compared to the evidence

specific questions - interviewer asks targeted questions abt details that relate to known evidence, looking for inconsistencies/omissions

confrontation w/ evidence - only at selected, strategic points is the evidence revealed to the suspect, making contradictions and lies harder to maintain and easier to spot

What is the Phase 2 of the reid technique like?

confrontational - goal is to create psychological pressure so the suspect is more likely to confess

What is in Phase 2 of the reid technique?

1 - precondition - the setting - suspect is isolated alone w/ a single interrogator, cutting off social support and making them more dependant on the interrogator

room deliberately designed to be small, windowless and soundproof, usually w/ 2 armless chairs, 1 desk and a 1 way mirror so others can observe without being seen - setting increases anxiety and sense of control by police

What happens once preconditions are met in Phase 2?

interrogator proceeds through the RT’s 9 steps of interrogation which aims to get a confession from the suspect

What are 2 structural problems of the reid technique?

has a milgramesque nature

is guilt-presumptive

How is the RT Milgram like?

subject is isolated - no friends, family, social support and are alone with the experimenter and is confronted by an authority figure

in a specially and carefully designed space

inv a contractual agreement sa signing a consent form or miranda waiver

inv deception - the cover story or that it serves your best interest

series of relentless demands - milgram prompts vs reid technique - no is not accepted

gradual escalation - 15v to 450v or minor role to full confession

ethics -

Why do interrogations tend to be guilt presumptive?

bc the measure of an interrogation’s success is a confession a

What did Snyder and Swan’s experiments do? (1978)

paired ppl w/ a confederate desc as either an introvert/extrovert and then asked them to get to know the person

ppl asked questions and behaved in ways that fit their expectation sa asking quiet questions which then pulled the conf’s bv in that direction, creating a self fullfilling propehcy

What did Kassin, Goldstein and Savitsky do? (2003)

in a lab interrogation setting, some suspect pps committed a mock crime while others didn’t - actual guilt vs innocent was controlled

separate investigator pps were told diff base-rate expectations b4 interviewing - either most are innocent, most are guilty or neutral framing

investigators who were led to believe most susp were guilty used more coercive tactics and guilt presumptive questions, regardless of suspect’s actual guilt

idp observers later rated tapes and judged susp in most r guilty condition as more g overall, inc sup who were innocent, showing that initial expectations can bias both interrogator and third party bvs

What is the PEACE method?

dvlped in UK in 1993 because of PACE - Police and criminal evidence act; english parliament 1984 - bc of the guilford 4 case

What is inv in the PEACE method?

non-confrontational investigative interviewing technique

investigative mindset - get as much info from susp as possible

further probing questions

inconsistencies challenged w/ further questions

What are the 2 types involved in the PEACE method?

cognitive interview - cooperative suspects

convo management - non-cooperative susp

What is evidence about the PEACE method like?

inconclusive - confession rate same overall (50%) but less false

possible that reid like things still happen but outside of the actual official questioning of suspects

What does PEACE stand for?

planning and preparation

engage and explain

account, clarify and challenge

closure

evaluation

What are the differences between information gathering and accustorial techniques?

What did Kassin (2005) say about the innocent?

they have the tendency to tell it like it was and think that their innocence will shine through and that the truth will prevail

What do innocent people do which leads to fcs?

wave miranda rights - talk to police w/o legal help instead of remaining silent

more likely to confess during difficult interrogations

What is Lerners theory? (1980)

just world theory which proposes that many ppl believe that the world is fair where ppl generally get what they deserve and deserve what they get

innocent suspects who hold this belief may assume that precisely bc they are innocent, the system will ultimately protect them so they cooperate fully, not realising that biases can still lead to wrongful outcomes

What did Gilovich et al (1998) describe?

the illusion of transparency - ppl overestimate how clearly others can see their internal states sa gonesty or anxiety

innocent susp may tf assume interrogators can see that they are telling the truth, underestimate risk of being misjudged and fail to protect themselves, making innocence a psych rf

Describe an experiment which talks about how innocence affects ppls decisions

Kassin and Norwick (2004) had some pps commit a mock crime whilst others didnt

pps were questioned by detective whose interview style was manipulated to be nice, mean or neutral

each sup’s task was to convince detective of their innocence for reward - if they failed, they had to come back for trial without reimbursement

b4 interview, they were read miranda rights and had to choose whether to remain silent or sign and talk

What did K and N’s exp find?

58% of pps chose to talk but this broke down to 36% guilty, 81% innocent

for innocent, the detective’s style made no dfr, even when hostile, most innocents waived their rights

guilty susp who waived explained that refusing to talk would make them look guilty - talked for strategic self presentation reasons

innocents said things like i have nothing to hide, showing faith in innocence led them to forgo protection of silence - putting them at greater risk

What did Perillo and Kassin (2011) do?

had pps commit academic misconduct or not by helping a confederate

some were told there was physical evidence and some didnt

all were accused of misconduct and asked to sign a confession

ctrl grp - 0% of innocents confessed

evidence condition - 50% of innocents confessed

what was meant as a threat of evidence made them think it will save them

What are some situational risk factors?

Factors exacerbating short-sighted decision-making

Lying & Presentation of False Evidence

Minimization & Maximization

What is temporal discounting?

the tendency to prefer a smaller reward now over a larger reward later

subjective value of outcomes drops as they move further into the future so immediate consqs feel more imp than delayed ones

What did Yang et al (2017) do?

applied TD to legal settings by treating confession choices like intertemporal decisions bt immediate and delayed consqs

a smaller, immediate consq might be agreeing to brief follow up questions right now whereas larger delayed consq is scheduling a longer, more intensive interview later

Why may suspects stop the process now?

bc distant consqs are discounted, choosing the option that ends the current interrogation quickly even if it leads to a worse outcome later sa confessing and increasing risk of conviction

the further way the long term conq feels, the stronger this bias becomes - some accept short term relief at expense of future legal position

What can make suspects more short sighted in their decisions and increase risk of fcs?

physical conditions and isolation

interrogations typically take place outside a susp’s familiar surroundings in a small, bare, and a one way mirror - heightens stress and sense of control by police

being physically isolated can make ppl focus on immediate relief - promotes short sighted choices like confessing just to get out

What do best practice recommendations suggest?

relatively brief interrogations - around 30 mins to few hrs - bc longer sessions are known to become coercive

Madon et al 2013 - in documented false confession cases, 34% of int lasted 6-12 hrs, 39% 12-24hrs and avg length 16.3 hrs - exceeds normal practice

What did Frenda et al (2016) say?

sleep deprivation may accompany prolonged periods of isolation and can heighten susceptibility

ty to influence and impair decision-making abilities in complex tasks

How does sleep deprivation occur in interrogations and cause fcs?

long interrogations leads to high distress and an incentive to remove yourself from situation

When do false confessions usually happen?

at off peak hours - late night or eaely morning

What often happens because of the timing of fcs?

fatigue and hunger/thirst leads to self-control decline - tired suspects have fewer mental resources to resist pressure or think clearly abt long term consqs and the gradual loss of the mental energy needed to control thoughts, emotions and bv

What happens when self control is low?

cognitive functions suffer so memory becomes less reliable and ppl mix up what is real vs imagined and it is harder to eval info rationally

impaired thinking makes a suspect more suggestible, more likely to accept the interrogator’s version of events and less able to spot risks in confessing to something not done

What does self-regulation decline weaken?

impulse control and emotional regulation so immediate relief - sa if i confess, this will all end, feels more imp than long term goals like avoiding conviction

What can push a innocent person to falsely confessing?

lying and presenting false evidence

there is a target event - real situation which authorities focus on sa a suspected rule violation or crime - person of interest may be innocent but treated as potential offender

investigators then introduce fabricated/misleading evidence

once suspect believe there is strong proof against them, confessing seems like the only realistics option even if innocent

What did Nash and Wade find?

false evidence can make ppl start to doubt their own memory and lead them to sign statements that match the fabricated proof

What are 2 classical experimental paradigms for the lying and presentation of false evidence?

the ALT Key experimental paradigm - what leads to internalisation and confabulation

the cheating experimental paradigm - effects of presentation of false evidence

What is the ALT key experiment?

investigated how easily ppl can be led to falsely confess to something they did not do

researchers wanted to understand why innocent ppl sometimes confess and how social pressure and situational factors influence fcs

(Kassin & Kiechel 1996)

What did the ALT key experiment find?

many pps sign a fc under pressure (complicance)

some begin to believe they actually pressed the key (internalisation)

some create false memories explaining how they pressed the key (confabulation)

What did the ALT key exp reveal?

that ppl can be persuaded to falsely confess v easily under stress and a false witness dramatically increases fcs

ppl can move beyond compliance to actually believing and fabricating fms

What was inv in the ALT key exp?

pps completed a typing task and warned not to press the alt key bc it would crash the computer

computer was secretly programmed to crash anyways an experimenter accused them of causing it

confed sometimes falsely claimed they saw pp press the key and had a condition where pps would type fast (high vulnerablity)

What was the Phase 1 of cheating studies? (Nash & Wade, 2010)

pps told they were taking part in a study on gambling bv using physical vs virtual money

task was to answer 15 questions to win as much money as possible

correct answer - take money, wrong - return it

pps told they were being filmed while playing

What happened within the cheating studies?

video was created where the resulting clip showed the subject collecting money from bank when they shld have returned it - signs on screen changed

What was phase 2 of the cheating studies?

pps told that the video showed that you took money from bank when you had given an incorrect answer or shown doctored video

What happened in phase 3 of th cheating studies?

all subjects were asked to sign a confession form

if they sign - no reception of payment

did not sign - meet professor in charge

What were the results in the cheating studies?

in both grps, everyone complied - high on both - tf false evidence makes ppl very likely to confess

internalisation stronger in see-video condition - everyone in see-video showed internalisation - seeking fake video makes ppl more likely to believe they did something they didnt do

rates of confabulations similar and low - fms less common than fcs but still occured

What is minimsation?

interrogator downplays seriousness of the offence - even though no promises are made, suspects often interpret minimisation as implying leniency - they read bt the lines

What are interrogators trained to do?

minimise crime through theme dv - a process of providing moral justification or face-saving excuses sa blaming the victim - minimise seriousness of situation and make confession seem like an expedient means of escape

What does research show about minimisation?

it is particularly harmful - suspects infer leniency in sentencing

What did Kassin and McNall (1991) do?

pps were given interrogation statements that used either minimisation (downplaying seriousness) or explicit leniency (clear promise of lighter punishment)

ppl estimates equally low punishment for both types - meaning minimisation functions like a promise of leniency, even when note is stated

What did Russano (2005) do?

pps completed a quiz task where they cld either cheat or not cheat (help a conf)

2 key manipulations - whether cheating occured and what the pp was told

6% confessed when nothing was said, 18% after minimisation, 19% with EL

minimisation sig increases fc rates - almost as much as directly promising leniency

How can we fix parts of the interrogation techniques?

video record int

education on the pseudoscience of lie detection

banning false evidence lies dues ints - allowed only in v few western countries

banning minimisation strategies that imply leniency - explicit promises of leniency are banned

replacing reid technique w/ other ones sa PEACE

Why are video recordings useful?

they provide a permanent, objective record of what happened during an interrogation

What are the limitations of video recordings of interrogations?

jurors often see only short edited clips - around 30 mins - not the entire interrogation - these clips usually show the end of a long coercive process

even when juror knows the interrogation was coercive, they still tend to trust the confession and do not discount it as much as expected

means video alone does not guarantee fairness

What did Lassiter et al., 2014 show?

that where the camera is pointed affects how jurors interpret the confession

suspect only camera angle - makes susp appear more guilty and confession more voluntary

equal focus camera angle - shows both interrogator and susp - makes viewers more aware of coercion/pressure

bias affects ordinary jurors and even experienced judges

How long shld interrogations last?

no more than 4 hours

research shows that fcs often occur after long its - typically 6+ hours - (Davis and Donahue, 2004)

What is the camera perspective bias?

a psychological phenomenon where the angle of a recorded int affects how ppl judge it - research mainly comes from Lassiter (2014)

What is perceptual salience?

theory which says that we are more infl by whatever is most visually noticeable in a situation

what you look at most becomes what you think is most important (Fiske and Taylorm 1975)

What did Lassiter do with perceptual salience?

applied it to police interrogations

recorded it to mock ints and used 3 diff camera angles - on susp, interrogator and both

pps judged if the int was coercive and susp statement voluntary

when susp was main focus - viewers judged int as less coercive and conf as more voluntary

ppl unconsciously assume the person they see most clearly is one in control

What can be done to improve interrogations? (Kassin, 2017)

public policy

reforms to int practice

raising public awareness

expert testimonies