Comparing the effects of explicit and implicit false-evidence ploys on Mock Jurors' verdicts, sentencing recommendations, and perceptions of police interrogation

William D. Woody, Krista D. Forrest, Sarah Yendra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

In police interrogation, an explicit false claim to have evidence raises important legal and constitutional questions. Therefore, some interrogation manuals recommend implicit false-evidence ploys (FEP) that ask suspects about potential evidence without making a direct claim to possess the evidence. Similar to the hypotheses in a recent study of implicit FEP and confession rates, we hypothesized that individuals would perceive implicit FEP as less coercive and deceptive when compared to explicit FEP that involve direct claims of false evidence. Although mock jurors rated all FEP as highly deceptive and coercive and as more deceptive than controls, we found that participants did not view implicit and explicit FEP differently and that ploy specificity (implicit or explicit) failed to affect verdicts or recommended sentences. These findings suggest that although interrogation trainers and scholars in law and psychology discriminate between the methods, jurors do not.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)603-617
Number of pages15
JournalPsychology, Crime and Law
Volume20
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • confession
  • false confession
  • interrogation
  • juror decision-making
  • police interrogation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine
  • General Psychology
  • Law

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