This study examined the impact of presentation modality and the effectiveness of direct and indirect measures of deception to distinguish truthful from deceptive confessions. Confession statements were presented in one of three formats: audiovisual, audio-only, or written text. Forty-six observers classified each statement as true or false and provided ratings of confidence, information sufficiency, perceived cognitive load, and suspiciousness. Compared to audio and written confessions, exposure to audiovisual recordings yielded significantly lower accuracy rates for direct veracity judgements, with below chance level performance. There was no evidence that indirect measures assisted observers in discriminating truthful from deceptive confessions. Overall, observers showed a strong bias to believe confessions with poor detection rates for false statements. Reliance on video recordings to assess the veracity of confession evidence is unlikely to reduce wrongful convictions arising from false confessions. 1. Introduction Due to the pervasive nature of deception in society, individuals are faced with the difficult task of distinguishing truths from lies on a regular basis. These judgments are especially important in the context of the criminal justice system, where law enforcement and legal professionals are routinely tasked with assessing the credibility of witnesses and suspects in police investigations and other criminal proceedings. The ability to accurately discriminate truths from lies in legal settings is crucial, as judgment errors can have grave consequences. This is especially relevant to confession evidence given the weight accorded this type of evidence in decisions to prosecute and trial verdicts. Evidence of a confession is considered the most incriminating form of trial evidence and can have a powerful and persuasive effect on conviction rates [1–3]. Given the ever-growing body of research detailing numerous examples of individuals wrongly convicted on the basis of false confession evidence [1, 4–8], it is vital that the veracity of confessions be accurately evaluated. Ensuring that wrongful convictions on the basis of false confessions are avoided involves both the use of appropriate and noncoercive police interviewing techniques and the implementation of effective safeguards to assess the credibility of suspect admissions. Historically, police interviews have been conducted in an accusatorial style, aimed at inducing a suspect to confess [9, 10]. This objective was supported by the use of psychologically coercive and manipulative tactics
References
[1]
S. A. Drizin and R. A. Leo, “The problem of false confessions in the post-DNA world,” North Carolina Law Review, 82, vol. 82, pp. 891–1007, 2004.
[2]
S. M. Kassin and K. Neumann, “On the power of confession evidence: an experimental test of the fundamental difference hypothesis,” Law and Human Behavior, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 469–484, 1997.
[3]
R. A. Leo and R. J. Ofshe, “The consequences of false confessions: deprivations of liberty and miscarriages of justice in the age of psychological interrogation,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. 88, no. 2, p. 429, 1998.
[4]
G. H. Gudjonsson, The Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions: A Handbook, Wiley, West Sussex, UK, 2003.
S. M. Kassin, S. A. Drizin, T. Grisso, G. H. Gudjonsson, R. A. Leo, and A. D. Redlich, “Police-induced confessions: risk factors and recommendations,” Law and Human Behavior, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 3–38, 2010.
[7]
S. M. Kassin and G. H. Gudjonsson, “The psychology of confessions: a review of the literature and issues,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 33–67, 2004.
[8]
B. Scheck, P. Neufeld, and J. Dwyer, Actual Innocence, Doubleday, New York, NY, USA, 2000.
[9]
D. Dixon, “‘A window into the interviewing process?’ The audio-visual recording of police interrogation in New South Wales, Australia,” Policing & Society, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 323–348, 2006.
[10]
S. M. Kassin, “On the psychology of confessions: does innocence put innocents at risk?” American Psychologist, vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 215–228, 2005.
[11]
F. E. Inbau, J. E. Reid, J. P. Buckley, and B. C. Jayne, Criminal Interrogations and Confessions, Aspen, Montgomery, Md, USA, 4th edition, 2001.
[12]
R. Leo, Police Interrogation and American Justice, Harvard University, Cambridge, UK, 2008.
[13]
D. Dixon, “Questioning suspects: a comparative perspective,” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 426–440, 2010.
[14]
D. Davis and W. T. O'Donohue, “The road to perdition: extreme influence tactics in the interrogation room,” in Handbook of Forensic Psychology, W. T. O'Donohue, P. R. Laws, and C. Hollin, Eds., pp. 897–996, Basic Books, New York, NY, USA, 2003.
[15]
G. D. Lassiter and M. J. Lindberg, “Video recording custodial interrogations: the devil's in the details,” Journal of Forensic Psychology, vol. 1, pp. E3–E10, 2009.
[16]
T. P. Sullivan, “Electronic recording of custodial interrogations: everybody wins,” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. 95, pp. 1127–1140, 2005.
[17]
G. D. Lassiter, “Videotaped interrogations and confessions: what's obvious in hindsight may not be in foresight,” Law and Human Behavior, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 41–42, 2010.
[18]
Innocence Project WA, “The Faces of Exoneration: Andrew Mallard,” http://www.innocenceprojectwa.org.au/andrew_mallard.html, 2013.
[19]
A. Vrij, Detecting Lies and Deceit: Pitfalls and Opportunities, Wiley, Chichester, UK, 2nd edition, 2008.
[20]
T. R. Levine, R. K. Kim, and J. P. Blair, “(In)accuracy at detecting true and false confessions and denials: an initial test of a projected motive model of veracity judgments,” Human Communication Research, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 82–102, 2010.
[21]
S. M. Kassin, “True or false: ‘i'd know a false confession if I saw one’,” in Deception Detection in Forensic Contexts, P. A. Granhag and L. A. Stromwall, Eds., pp. 172–194, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004.
[22]
L. Ross, “The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: distortions in the attribution process,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 10, no. C, pp. 173–220, 1977.
[23]
S. M. Kassin, C. A. Meissner, and R. J. Norwick, “‘I'd know a false confession if i saw one’: a comparative study of college students and police investigators,” Law and Human Behavior, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 211–227, 2005.
[24]
M. Davis, K. A. Markus, and S. B. Walters, “Judging the credibility of criminal suspect statements: does mode of presentation matter?” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 181–198, 2006.
[25]
J. P. Blair, T. R. Levine, and A. S. Shaw, “Content in context improves deception detection accuracy,” Human Communication Research, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 423–442, 2010.
[26]
C. F. Bond Jr. and B. M. DePaulo, “Accuracy of deception judgments,” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 214–234, 2006.
[27]
D. E. Anderson, B. M. DePaulo, M. E. Ansfield, J. J. Tickle, and E. Green, “Beliefs about cues to deception: mindless stereotypes or untapped wisdom?” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 67–89, 1999.
[28]
K. Brooks, I. Watkins, and D. Bradford, “Using eye contact instructions to facilitate lie detection through increased cognitive load: sensitivity and bias for scripted and unscripted lies,” submitted to Journal of Criminology.
[29]
J. K. Burgoon, J. P. Blair, and R. E. Strom, “Cognitive biases and nonverbal cue availability in detecting deception,” Human Communication Research, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 572–599, 2008.
[30]
B. M. DePaulo, G. D. Lassiter, and J. I. Stone, “Attentional determinants of success at detecting deception and truth,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 8, pp. 273–279, 1982.
[31]
J. E. Hocking, J. Bauchner, E. P. Kaminski, and G. R. Miller, “Detecting deceptive communication from verbal, visual, and paralinguistic cues,” Human Communication Research, vol. 6, pp. 33–46, 1979.
[32]
N. R. Maier and J. A. Thurber, “Accuracy of judgments of deception when an interview is watched, heard and read,” Personnel Psychology, vol. 21, pp. 23–30, 1968.
[33]
R. Wiseman, “The megalab truth test,” Nature, vol. 373, no. 6513, p. 391, 1995.
[34]
M. Zuckerman, B. M. DePaulo, and R. Rosenthal, “Verbal and nonverbal communication of deception,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, L. Berkowitz, Ed., vol. 14, pp. 1–57, Academic Press, New York, NY, USA, 1981.
[35]
A. Vrij, “Guidelines to catch a liar,” in Deception Detection in Forensic Contexts, P. A. Granhag and L. A. Stromwall, Eds., pp. 287–314, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004.
[36]
M. Davis and K. A. Markus, “Misleading cues, misplaced confidence: an analysis of deception detection patterns,” American Journal of Dance Therapy, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 107–126, 2006.
[37]
J. L. Hale and J. B. Stiff, “Nonverbal primacy in veracity judgments,” Communication Reports, vol. 3, pp. 75–83, 1990.
[38]
A. Vrij, “Why professionals fail to catch liars and how they can improve,” Legal and Criminological Psychology, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 159–181, 2004.
[39]
A. Vrij, P. A. Granhag, and S. Porter, “Pitfalls and opportunities in nonverbal and verbal lie detection,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 89–121, 2010.
[40]
B. M. DePaulo, B. E. Malone, J. J. Lindsay, L. Muhlenbruck, K. Charlton, and H. Cooper, “Cues to deception,” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 129, no. 1, pp. 74–118, 2003.
[41]
T. R. Levine, K. B. Serota, H. Shulman et al., “Sender demeanor: individual differences in sender believability have a powerful impact on deception detection judgments,” Human Communication Research, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 377–403, 2011.
[42]
S. L. Sporer and B. Schwandt, “Paraverbal indicators of deception: a meta-analytic synthesis,” Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 421–446, 2006.
[43]
L. A. Stromwall, P. A. Granhag, and M. Hartwig, in Practitioners' Beliefs about Deception Detection in Forensic Contexts, P. A. Granhag and L. A. Stromwall, Eds., pp. 229–250, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004.
[44]
Global Deception Research Team, “A world of lies,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 37, pp. 60–74, 2006.
[45]
D. E. Anderson, B. M. DePaulo, and M. E. Ansfield, “The development of deception detection skill: a longitudinal study of same-sex friends,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 536–545, 2002.
[46]
B. M. DePaulo, R. Rosenthal, C. R. Green, and J. Rosenkrantz, “Diagnosing deceptive and mixed messages from verbal and nonverbal cues,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 433–446, 1982.
[47]
A. Vrij, K. Edward, and R. Bull, “Police officers' ability to detect deceit: the benefit of indirect deception detection measures,” Legal and Criminological Psychology, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 185–196, 2001.
[48]
M. Hartwig and C. F. Bond, “Why do lie-catchers fail? A lens model meta-analysis of human lie judgments,” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 137, no. 4, pp. 643–659, 2011.
[49]
R. A. Bryant, A. J. Barnier, D. Mallard, and R. Tibbits, “Posthypnotic amnesia for material learned before hypnosis,” International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 46–64, 1999.
[50]
M. T. Orne, “The nature of hypnosis: artifact and essence,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 277–299, 1959.
[51]
M. T. Orne, “The simulation of hypnosis: why, how, and what it means,” International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 183–210, 1971.
[52]
A. J. Barnier, S. J. Sharman, P. Ashkar, J. D. Leland, A. Marsh, and K. McConkey, Account Qualities and Interpersonal Source Monitoring of Autobiographical Memories: The Impact of Deception, Emotion and Instruction, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2006.
[53]
A. Vrij, S. A. Mann, R. P. Fisher, S. Leal, R. Milne, and R. Bull, “Increasing cognitive load to facilitate lie detection: the benefit of recalling an event in reverse order,” Law and Human Behavior, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 253–265, 2008.
[54]
A. F. Hayes and K. Krippendorff, “Answering the call for a standard reliability measure for coding data,” Communication Methods and Measures, vol. 1, pp. 77–89, 2007.
[55]
K. Krippendorff, Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology, Sage, Thousand Oaks, Calif, USA, 2nd edition, 2004.
[56]
D. M. Green and J. A. Swets, Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics, Wiley, New York, NY, USA, 1966.
[57]
C. A. Meissner and S. M. Kassin, “‘He's guilty!’: investigator bias in judgments of truth and deception,” Law and Human Behavior, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 469–480, 2002.
[58]
S. Mann, A. Vrij, and R. Bull, “Detecting true lies: police officers' ability to detect suspects' lies,” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 89, no. 1, pp. 137–149, 2004.
[59]
J. B. Stiff, G. R. Miller, C. Sleight, P. Mongeau, R. Garlick, and R. Rogan, “Explanations for visual cue primacy in judgments of honesty and deceit,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 555–564, 1989.
[60]
A. Vrij and G. R. Semin, “Lie experts' beliefs about nonverbal indicators of deception,” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 65–80, 1996.
[61]
T. R. Levine, H. S. Park, and S. A. McCornack, “Accuracy in detecting truths and lies: documenting the ‘veracity effect’,” Communication Monographs, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 125–144, 1999.
[62]
S. A. McCornack and M. R. Parks, “Deception detection and relationship development: the other side of trust,” in Communication Yearbook 9, M. McLaughlin, Ed., pp. 377–389, Sage, Beverly Hills, Calif, USA, 1986.
[63]
S. A. McCornack, “The generation of deceptive messages: laying the groundwork for a viable theory of interpersonal deception,” in Message Production: Advances in Communication Theory, J. O. Greene, Ed., pp. 91–126, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, USA, 1997.
[64]
B. E. Malone, R. B. Adams, D. E. Anderson, M. E. Ansfield, and B. M. DePaulo, “Strategies of deception and their correlates over the course of friendship,” in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC, USA, May 1997.
[65]
R. F. Baumeister, A. M. Stillwell, and T. F. Heatherton, “Guilt: an interpersonal approach,” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 115, no. 2, pp. 243–267, 1994.
[66]
M. G. Frank and T. H. Feeley, “To catch a liar: challenges for research in lie detection training,” Journal of Applied Communication Research, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 58–75, 2003.
