RT Article
T1 Feeling guilty: little effect on false confession rate
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 27
IS 3
SP 265
OP 281
A1 Schneider, Teresa 1990-
A2 Merckelbach, Harald 1959-
A2 Sauerland, Melanie
A2 Grady, Laura
A2 Leistra, Aniek
A2 Lier, Stephanie van
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/176651703X
AB In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that guilt feelings would elevate the probability of making a false confession. In Experiment 1 (N = 146), a confederate induced guilt feelings by asking participants to cheat on a task. The experimenter then falsely accused participants of having pressed a forbidden key, causing a computer crash. In Experiment 2 (N = 108), a confederate was punished every time participants could not answer a quiz question. The confederate later cheated in a game and asked participants to take the blame. In Experiment 1, 100 participants (68.5%) falsely confessed to pressing the key. In Experiment 2, 39 participants (36.1%) falsely confessed to cheating. Guilt manipulations had no effect on false confession rates. When exploring the effect of guilt feelings, five of eight tests were statistically non-significant. As yet, there is insufficient evidence to argue that guilt feelings are a major determinant of false confessions.
K1 ALT key paradigm
K1 blame-taking behavior
K1 cheating paradigm
K1 Compliance
K1 Interrogation
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2020.1798427