I Confess

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I Confess

• Presented by
• Dr. Dunham

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Purpose of Study

• To determine if participants would confess to a
  crime they did not commit.

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The Participants

• College students with high SAT scores

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Main research design
This study was an experiment.

• Participants were randomly assigned to one of
  four conditions formed by the two independent
  variables
• Witness (present/absent)
• Vulnerability (high/low)

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The main prediction
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Procedure

• Participants were told the study was about
  reaction times
• Participants warned not to hit ltaltgt key
• Participants typed at a keyboard at either a slow
  rate (low vulnerability) or a fast rate (high
  vulnerability)
• Experimenter announced that the participant had
  hit the ltaltgt key
• Confederate either said she witnessed this, or
  said she didnt see whether the key was hit

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Dependent Variables

• Compliance agreed to sign confession
• Internalization confessed that he or she hit the
  ltaltgt key
• Confabulation made up details about how the
  ltaltgt key was hit

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Conclusion

• The results supported the hypothesis
• Participants were much more likely to confess to
  a crime they did not commit if they were typing
  quickly and their fellow participant claimed she
  witnessed the crime.
• This indicates that people can be induced to
  confess to crimes they did not commit if things
  happen quickly and there is a witness who claims
  to have observed the event.