Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Influence of Blame Mitigation and Guilt Induction on True Versus False Confessions

在“无罪计划”认定的325起错误定罪中，虚假供词约占30%。调查显示，试图将犯罪的严重性合理化和最小化，或将责任推给嫌疑人的审讯主题，会增加虚假供词的可能性。考虑到真正的供词与内疚感有关，而减轻罪责的方法旨在减少内疚感，这些减轻罪责的策略也可能抑制犯罪嫌疑人的供词。这个项目将研究在审讯中减轻罪责，以及一种新的审讯技术（罪恶感诱导），在这种审讯中，审讯者强调嫌疑人对犯罪的责任，他或她的行为对受害者的影响，以及嫌疑人的行为如何未能达到理想标准。这里进行的实验将(1)检验从业者的信念，即减轻罪责的技术不会产生虚假的供词，(2)评估罪恶感诱导是否会导致有罪而不是无辜的嫌疑人认罪。实验还将评估这些技术如何影响嫌疑人对责任和未来惩罚的认知。这个项目将采用实验方法。参与者将想象自己在审讯中（实验1）或在实验室范式中体验审讯（实验2），其中包括责备减轻、内疚诱导或直接询问审讯技巧。这个项目有可能通过发展一种基于经验的视角来研究审讯室的运作方式，从而造福社会。鉴于我们的刑事司法系统中虚假供词的普遍存在，以及目前关于使用强制审讯方法的争论，我们开发更多诊断性的、基于证据的审讯方法至关重要。这个项目也将为从业者和研究者提出的忏悔理论的对比提供一个重要的测试。

False confessions account for approximately 30% of the more than 325 wrongful convictions identified by The Innocence Project. Interrogation themes, which attempt to rationalize and minimize the seriousness of the crime or project blame away from the suspect, have been shown to increase the likelihood of false confessions. It is possible that these blame mitigation strategies may also inhibit confessions from guilty suspects, given that true confessions are related to feelings of guilt and blame mitigation approaches are designed to reduce feelings of guilt. This project will examine blame mitigation in an interrogation as well as a novel interrogation technique (guilt induction) in which an interrogator emphasizes a suspect's responsibility for the crime, the impact his or her actions had on the victim, and how the suspect's behavior failed to meet an ideal standard.Experiments conducted here will (1) test practitioners' beliefs that blame mitigation techniques do not produce false confessions, and (2) assess whether guilt induction leads guilty, but not innocent, suspects to confess. The experiments will also assess how these techniques affect suspects' perceptions of responsibility and future punishment. This project will use experimental methods. Participants will imagine themselves in an interrogation (Experiment 1) or experience an interrogation in a laboratory paradigm (Experiment 2) that includes blame mitigation, guilt induction, or direct questioning interrogation techniques. This project has the potential to benefit society by developing an empirically-based perspective on what works in the interrogation room. Given the prevalence of false confessions in our criminal justice system and current debates over the use of coercive interrogation methods, it is critical that we develop more diagnostic, evidence-based interrogation approaches. This project will also provide an important test of contrasting theories of confession proposed by practitioners and researchers.