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The Use Of Participant-Confederates In Examining Behavior Among The Falsely Accused: A Pilot Study

Symposium of Student Scholars

False confessions, which are admissions of guilt of a criminal act by an innocent individual, are a leading cause of wrongful convictions (Drizin & Leo, 2004). Researchers have primarily focused on identifying coercive elements of interrogations and confessor characteristics that increase the likelihood of false confessions, rather than examining potential relationship factors between the perpetrator and the false confessor. This pilot study examined whether Russano et al.’s (2005) cheating paradigm could be modified to include a participant-confederate who is either a stranger or a friend. Participant-confederates engage in a staged cheating incident and then send a plea to innocent-participants asking …