Innocent Adults Are Easy To Convince They Committed a Serious Crime

[NobleSavage]

Research recently published in Psychological Science quantifies how easy it is to convince innocent, "normal" adults that they committed a crime. The Association for Psychological Science (APS) has posted a nice summary of the research. From the APS summary: "Evidence from some wrongful-conviction cases suggests that suspects can be questioned in ways that lead them to falsely believe in and confess to committing crimes they didn't actually commit. New research provides lab-based evidence for this phenomenon, showing that innocent adult participants can be convinced, over the course of a few hours, that they had perpetrated crimes as serious as assault with a weapon in their teenage years.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/14/0956797614562862.abstract [link is to abstract only; full text requires subscription]

http://www.psychologicalscience.org...hey-committed-a-crime-they-dont-remember.html

This combined with the fact that plea agreements usually coerce many to plead guilty when the are not seems like the ultimate cluster fuck. You could be faced with 15 years in prison or time served if you plead guilty. If you have a family at home and a public defender who can't remember your name or what you are charged with taking the plea seems like the logical choice.

 

[fromderinside]

Research recently published in Psychological Science quantifies how easy it is to convince innocent, "normal" adults that they committed a crime. The Association for Psychological Science (APS) has posted a nice summary of the research. From the APS summary: "Evidence from some wrongful-conviction cases suggests that suspects can be questioned in ways that lead them to falsely believe in and confess to committing crimes they didn't actually commit. New research provides lab-based evidence for this phenomenon, showing that innocent adult participants can be convinced, over the course of a few hours, that they had perpetrated crimes as serious as assault with a weapon in their teenage years.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/14/0956797614562862.abstract [link is to abstract only; full text requires subscription]



http://www.psychologicalscience.org...hey-committed-a-crime-they-dont-remember.html

This combined with the fact that plea agreements usually coerce many to plead guilty when the are not seems like the ultimate cluster fuck. You could be faced with 15 years in prison or time served if you plead guilty. If you have a family at home and a public defender who can't remember your name or what you are charged with taking the plea seems like the logical choice.

This isn't about human nature it is about perversion of social systems.

 

[Bronzeage]

Research recently published in Psychological Science quantifies how easy it is to convince innocent, "normal" adults that they committed a crime. The Association for Psychological Science (APS) has posted a nice summary of the research. From the APS summary: "Evidence from some wrongful-conviction cases suggests that suspects can be questioned in ways that lead them to falsely believe in and confess to committing crimes they didn't actually commit. New research provides lab-based evidence for this phenomenon, showing that innocent adult participants can be convinced, over the course of a few hours, that they had perpetrated crimes as serious as assault with a weapon in their teenage years.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/14/0956797614562862.abstract [link is to abstract only; full text requires subscription]

http://www.psychologicalscience.org...hey-committed-a-crime-they-dont-remember.html

This combined with the fact that plea agreements usually coerce many to plead guilty when the are not seems like the ultimate cluster fuck. You could be faced with 15 years in prison or time served if you plead guilty. If you have a family at home and a public defender who can't remember your name or what you are charged with taking the plea seems like the logical choice.

I think it's possible to convince an innocent person their best course is to confess to a serious crime, but convincing them that they actually did it is another matter.

 

[NobleSavage]

I think it's possible to convince an innocent person their best course is to confess to a serious crime, but convincing them that they actually did it is another matter.

Yes, it's two different things. I mostly wanted to talk about the research, but my general point was that there is probably more innocent people in prison than most people realize.

 

[NobleSavage]

This isn't about human nature it is about perversion of social systems.

Huh? From the linked article:

Evidence from some wrongful-conviction cases suggests that suspects can be questioned in ways that lead them to falsely believe in and confess to committing crimes they didn’t actually commit. New research provides lab-based evidence for this phenomenon, showing that innocent adult participants can be convinced, over the course of a few hours, that they had perpetrated crimes as serious as assault with a weapon in their teenage years.

The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, indicates that the participants came to internalize the stories they were told, providing rich and detailed descriptions of events that never actually took place.

 

[ronburgundy]

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/14/0956797614562862.abstract [link is to abstract only; full text requires subscription]

http://www.psychologicalscience.org...hey-committed-a-crime-they-dont-remember.html

This combined with the fact that plea agreements usually coerce many to plead guilty when the are not seems like the ultimate cluster fuck. You could be faced with 15 years in prison or time served if you plead guilty. If you have a family at home and a public defender who can't remember your name or what you are charged with taking the plea seems like the logical choice.

I think it's possible to convince an innocent person their best course is to confess to a serious crime, but convincing them that they actually did it is another matter.

The research isn't about giving false confessions but forming false memories about their own past, meaning that they actually do believe they committed the crimes. However, in order to create these false memories, the researchers had to find out a lot of real accurate info about the person from their childhood caregivers, then use that real info to build the false memories around. Also, there was no real consequence to admitting to these crimes, since it was all within the context of research. Thus, the 50% that formed false memories of themselves committing an assault as a teen, would be much less likely to form such beliefs in the context of a real criminal investigation where the consequences for such a confession are severe.

 

[Bronzeage]

I think it's possible to convince an innocent person their best course is to confess to a serious crime, but convincing them that they actually did it is another matter.

The research isn't about giving false confessions but forming false memories about their own past, meaning that they actually do believe they committed the crimes. However, in order to create these false memories, the researchers had to find out a lot of real accurate info about the person from their childhood caregivers, then use that real info to build the false memories around. Also, there was no real consequence to admitting to these crimes, since it was all within the context of research. Thus, the 50% that formed false memories of themselves committing an assault as a teen, would be much less likely to form such beliefs in the context of a real criminal investigation where the consequences for such a confession are severe.

If I had been the kind of teen who assaulted people and was constantly in fights, it might be possible to make me believe I had committed an assault which never happened, or at the least, make me doubt my memory. The key to a false memory is it must either be plausible or desirable.

 

[ronburgundy]

The research isn't about giving false confessions but forming false memories about their own past, meaning that they actually do believe they committed the crimes. However, in order to create these false memories, the researchers had to find out a lot of real accurate info about the person from their childhood caregivers, then use that real info to build the false memories around. Also, there was no real consequence to admitting to these crimes, since it was all within the context of research. Thus, the 50% that formed false memories of themselves committing an assault as a teen, would be much less likely to form such beliefs in the context of a real criminal investigation where the consequences for such a confession are severe.

If I had been the kind of teen who assaulted people and was constantly in fights, it might be possible to make me believe I had committed an assault which never happened, or at the least, make me doubt my memory.

100% of the subjects were selected for the study specifically because there was no evidence of any actual crime or assault in their past. Yet 70% were led to believe they had committed a crime that involved a run-in with police, and 50% even when that crime was as serious as assault (which as a teen is just "a fight").

The key to a false memory is it must either be plausible or desirable.

Not really. Only a strong belief that the event was completely impossible would prevent a false memory. High degree of plausibility or desirability make false memories easy and even more likely than accurate memory. However, so long as the event was possible, then a false memory of it is possible. Everyone has many false memories.

 

[couch_sloth]

In the U.S., the police seem to be allowed to lie quite a bit while questioning suspects. e. g. They can tell you that such-and-such person says that they witnessed you committing the crime, when in fact that person never made such a statement.
If you didn't know the police could do this, you can see how they could fuck with your mind.

 

[Bronzeage]

If I had been the kind of teen who assaulted people and was constantly in fights, it might be possible to make me believe I had committed an assault which never happened, or at the least, make me doubt my memory.

100% of the subjects were selected for the study specifically because there was no evidence of any actual crime or assault in their past. Yet 70% were led to believe they had committed a crime that involved a run-in with police, and 50% even when that crime was as serious as assault (which as a teen is just "a fight").

The key to a false memory is it must either be plausible or desirable.

Not really. Only a strong belief that the event was completely impossible would prevent a false memory. High degree of plausibility or desirability make false memories easy and even more likely than accurate memory. However, so long as the event was possible, then a false memory of it is possible. Everyone has many false memories.

I don't remember any of that.