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Why Would They Falsely Confess?
Why on earth would an innocent person falsely confess to committing a crime? To most people, it just doesn&39;t seem logical. But it is logical, say experts, if you understand what can happen in a police interrogation (审讯) room.
Under the right conditions, people&39;s minds are susceptible (易受影响的) to influence, and the pressure put on suspects during police questioning is enormous.(46)"The pressure is important to understand, because otherwise it&39;s impossible to understand why someone would say he did something he didn&39;t do. The answer is: to put an end to an uncomfortable situation that will continue until he does confess."
Developmental psychologist Mary Redlich recently conducted a laboratory study to determine how likely people are to confess to things they didn&39;t do.(47)The researchers then intentionally crashed the computers and accused the participants of hitting the "alt" key to see if they would sign a statement falsely taking responsibility.
Redlich&39;s findings clearly demonstrate how easy it can be to get People to falsely confess: 59 percent of the young adults in the experiment immediately confessed.(48)Of the 15-to 16-year-olds, 72 percent signed confessions, as did 78 percent of the 12-to 13-year-olds.
"There&39;s no question that young people are more at risk," says Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at Williams College, who has done similar studies with similar results.(49)
Both Kassin and Redlich note that the entire "interrogation" in their experiments consisted of a simple accusation—not hours of aggressive questioning—and still, most participants falsely confessed.
(50)"In some ways," says Kassin, “false confession becomes a rational decision."
(46)