Author(s): Jennifer Torres

Presentation: poster

Confessions from a defendant, whether they are true or not, are weighted heavily by jurors. Past research has shown that mock jurors find it hard to believe that people would falsely admit to something they did not do. In the current study, the subjects were told about a false confession study in which every single person in one condition admitted to doing something they did not really do. Half of the subjects in the present study received only details of the methodology of that study, while the other half also received information about the results. All subjects also completed a short survey about false confessions and were asked how likely they think they would have been to confess if they had been in the same situation as the prior subjects. There were a total of 117 subjects and the results showed that, counter to my hypothesis, the subjects who only received the methodology were more likely than subjects who received the methodology and results to believe they themselves would have falsely confessed.

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