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

在无罪项目确定的325多起错误定罪中，虚假供词约占30%。审讯的主题，试图合理化和最大限度地减少犯罪的严重性或项目的责任远离嫌疑人，已被证明增加了虚假供词的可能性。这是可能的，这些责任减轻策略也可能会抑制有罪嫌疑人的供词，因为真正的供词与内疚感和责任减轻方法的目的是减少内疚感。这个项目将研究在审讯中的责备缓解以及一种新颖的审讯技术（内疚感诱导），在这种情况下，一个推理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的标准。这里进行的实验将（1）测试从业者的信念，指责减轻技术不会产生虚假的供词，（2）评估内疚诱导是否导致有罪而非无辜的嫌疑人认罪。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看法。本项目将采用实验方法。参与者将想象自己在一个审讯（实验1）或经验的审讯在实验室的范式（实验2），其中包括责备缓解，内疚诱导，或直接提问的审讯技术。这个项目有可能通过发展一个基于实践的观点来造福社会，这个观点是关于在审讯室里什么是有效的。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。该项目还将为实践者和研究者提出的供词理论的对比提供一个重要的检验。

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.