investigating true and false confessions within a novel.pdfVIP

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article Investigating True and False Confessions Within a Novel Experimental Paradigm Melissa B. Russano,1 Christian A. Meissner,2 Fadia M. Narchet,2 and Saul M. Kassin3 1Roger Williams University, 2Florida International University, and 3 Williams College ABSTRACT— The primary goal of the current study was to the ‘‘Central Park Jogger,’’ in which five teenage boys provided develop a novel experimental paradigm with which to false confessions to the rape and assault of a 28-year-old study the influence of psychologically based interrogation woman. Despite the fact that all of the teenagers later retracted techniques on the likelihood of true and false confessions. their confessions and no other physical evidence conclusively The paradigm involves guilty and innocent participants linked them to the crime, they were convicted and served up to being accused of intentionally breaking an experimental 12 years in prison. Years later, Matias Reyes, a convicted serial rule, or ‘‘cheating.’’ In the first demonstration of this para- rapist and murderer, confessed to being the sole perpetrator of digm, we explored the influence of two common police inter- the attack. DNA tests of semen and pubic hair found at the rogation tactics: minimization and an explicit offer of scene of the crime confirmed that Reyes was guilty, and the boys leniency, or a ‘‘deal.’’ Results indicated that guilty persons were officially exonerated in December of 2002 (Younge, 2003). were more likely to confess than innocent persons, and that Although the actual rate of false confessions is difficult to the use of minimization and the offer of a deal increased the determine, the Innocence Project’s anal