City Research Online

Abstract

Expert witnesses and scholarssometimesdisagree on whether suggestibility and compliance are related to people’s tendency to falsely confess. Hence, the principal aim of this review was to amass the available evidence on the link between suggestibility and complianceand false confessions. We reviewed experimental data in which false confessions were experimentally evoked and suggestibilityand compliancewere measured. Furthermore, we reviewed field data ofpotential false confessions and their relationship with suggestibility and compliance. These diverse databases converge to the same conclusion. We unequivocally found that high levels of suggestibility (andto a lesser extentcompliance)were associated with an increased vulnerability to falsely confess. Suggestibility measurements might be informative for expert witnesses who must evaluate the false confession potential in legal cases.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Otgaar, H., Schell-Leugers, J., Howe, M. L. , De La Fuente Vilar, A., Houben, S. and Merckelbach, H. (2020). The Link Between Suggestibility, Compliance, and False Confessions: A Review using Experimental and Field Studies. Applied Cognitive Psychology, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3788. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Publisher Keywords:	False confessions, suggestibility, compliance, individual differences
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology

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