Doctoral Dissertation Research: Interrogating Psychopathic Suspects: Confessions, Deception and Cues to Guilt

本研究通过测试在讲真话和欺骗策略研究中建立的方法，考察了围绕调查性访谈和审讯的过程。这个实验的参与者将被要求观看由真正的警察侦探进行的审讯或审讯前访谈的前刑事被告的录像带，他们否认参与了他们已经或没有犯下的罪行，或者承认了他们已经或没有犯下的罪行。然后，参与者将被要求在审讯过程的各个阶段对嫌疑人的可信度和真实性做出判断。这项研究不同于以往的研究，因为它调查了精神病人格在嫌疑人撒谎时调节逃避侦查能力的可能性。录像也将被编码，以确定精神变态者在欺骗时的言语和非言语暗示是否与非精神变态者不同。根据现有文献，假设a)精神病患者在说谎时会表现出与非精神病患者不同的语言和非语言暗示，b)精神病患者会对参与者的真实性判断产生调节作用，例如精神病患者在否认参与他们所犯的罪行时更容易被判断为诚实。c)精神病患者会缓和参与者的真实性判断，这样精神病患者提供的虚假供词会被认为比非精神病患者提供的虚假供词更可信。相信本研究结果将增进对欺骗性陈述的理论认识，并为实务调查提供重要资讯。

This study examines the processes surrounding investigative interviewing and interrogation, by testing approaches founded in research on strategies of truth telling and deceiving. Participants in this experiment will be asked to watch videotapes of former criminal defendants in interrogations or pre-interrogation interviews conducted by actual police detectives denying involvement in crimes which they either have or have not committed or confessing to crimes which they have or have not committed. The participants will then be asked to make determinations of the suspects' credibility and veracity during the respective phases of the interrogation process.This study differed from previous research in that it investigates the possibility that psychopathic personality moderates a suspect's ability to evade detection while being mendacious. Videotapes will also be coded to determine whether psychopaths differ from nonpsychopaths in their verbal and nonverbal cues while being deceptive. In line with the extant literature, it is hypothesized that a) psychopathic individuals will display verbal and nonverbal cues while lying which differ from nonpsychopathic individuals, b) psychopathy will have a moderating effect on a participant's veracity judgments such that psychopathic individuals will more often be judged as truthful when denying involvement in the crimes they committed, and c) psychopathy will moderate participants' veracity judgments such that the false confessions provided by psychopathic individuals will be seen as more believable than false confessions provided by nonpsychopathic individuals. It is believed that the results of this study will enhance the theoretical understanding of deceptive presentations as well as provide important information to investigative practitioners.