When a Police Interrogator Tells You It Isn’t Your Fault |
Interrogations use soft-sell techniques to get you to confess, like providing moral excuses.
This can decrease (even innocent) suspects’ anxiety to confess, which can lead to coerced confessions.
People infer implied meanings, even when something isn’t explicitly stated.
A confession is often seen as the gold standard of evidence in a criminal case, leading to guilty verdicts even when there is no other evidence, when there’s a reason to think the confession was involuntary, and even when other evidence like DNA contradicts the story in the confession. Throughout the last four or five decades, scientists have learned a lot about the psychology of interrogations and confessions. But has that information trickled down to the public?
This multi-part series titled “What Psychologists Want You to Know About Interrogations” uses data from a 2021 survey of the general public and their knowledge about police interrogations and false confessions. This survey compared the public’s knowledge to that of experts in the field: psychologists who have published empirical papers in peer-reviewed journals on these topics. The results showed that these two groups agree on certain information about interrogations and confessions. But a lot of the time, the public has ideas about these topics that go against what experts know from their research. This series presents a few key findings that experts want you to know. This is Part 4.
Interrogators offer sympathy and moral justification for committing a crime, which may make people more likely to believe the consequences won’t be so bad if they confess
Modern-day interrogations don’t look like the stereotypical near-torture chambers of the past. No rubber hoses, no bright lights shining in your face, not even Detective Elliot Stabler from Law and Order: SVU........