Behavioral confirmation in the interrogation room: On the dangers of presuming guilt
Abstract
A two-phased experiment tested the hypothesis that the presumption of guilt that underlies police interrogations activates a process of behavioral confirmation. In Phase I, 52 suspects guilty or innocent of a mock theft were questioned by 52 interrogators led to believe that most suspects were guilty or innocent. Interrogators armed with guilty as opposed to innocent expectations selected more guilt-presumptive questions, used more interrogation techniques, judged the suspect to be guilty, and exerted more pressure to get a confession--particularly when paired with innocent suspects. In Phase II, neutral observers listened to audiotapes of the suspect, interrogator, or both. They perceived suspects in the guilty expectations condition as more defensive--and as somewhat more guilty. Results indicate that a presumption of guilt sets in motion a process of behavioral confirmation by which expectations influence the interrogator's behavior, the suspect's behavior, and ultimately the judgments of neutral observers.
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Police officers are often trained to presume a suspect is guilty; such suspicion creates bias and generates evidence (such as false confessions) that can lead to wrongful convictions.
“Another example in the wider context of the justice and legal systems is police officers who are often trained to presume a suspect is guilty. Such a suspicion against suspects creates bias and generates evidence (such as false confessions) that can lead to wrongful convictions (Baldwin, 1993; Inbau et al., 2001; Kassin et al., 2003).”
From Biased and biasing: the hidden bias cascade and bias snowball effects (2025) · cites this paper as Kassin et al., 2003
Cites
Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.1.21 · Cited by 1,897 · see citing works
Perceiver-induced constraint: Interpretations of self-generated reality.
Gilbert, D. T., & Jones, E. E. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.269 · Cited by 335 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Even the interrogators failed to account for the impact of their own behavior, a result that resembles the Gilbert and Jones (1986) finding that perceivers inferred an actor's true attitude from the position espoused in a low-choice speech even when they had personally assigned the actor to assert that position.”
ResultPretrial publicity, judicial remedies, and jury bias.
Kramer, G. P., Kerr, N. L., & Carroll, J. S. (1990) · Law and Human Behavior · doi:10.1007/bf01044220 · Cited by 202 · cited 1× · see citing works
“With regard to group deliberation, mock jury studies have shown that the extralegal biases that plague individual jurors persist in groups despite deliberation (Carretta & Moreland, 1983; Kramer, Kerr, & Carroll, 1990 ).”
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Bogaard, G., Meijer, E. H., Vrij, A., & Merckelbach, H. (2016) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156615 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Biased and biasing: the hidden bias cascade and bias snowball effects
Dror, I. E. (2025) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs15040490 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kassin, S. M., Goldstein, C. C., & Savitsky, K.
- Affiliations
- Williams College (US)
- ORCID
- Kassin, Saul M.
- Venue
- Law and Human Behavior
- Published
- 2003-04
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 187-203
- ISSN
- 0147-7307 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-661X
- OpenAlex
- W2054455242
- Cited by
- 358
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 13.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Law and Human Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Deception detection and forensic psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Torture, Ethics, and Law
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Law and Evidence
- Keywords
- behavioral confirmation, presumption of guilt, police interrogation, confession, guilt judgments, viewer perception, questioning strategies
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Crime, Guilt, Humans, Persuasive Communication, Social Perception, Truth Disclosure, United States, Police
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