{{B}} Why Would They Falsely Confess?{{/B}}
Why on earth would an innocent person falsely confess to committing a crime? To most people, it just doesn'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's minds are susceptible (易受影响的) to influence, and the pressure put on suspects during police questioning is enormous; {{U}}(46) {{/U}} "The pressure is important to understand, because otherwise it's impossible to understand why someone would say he did something he didn'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't do. {{U}}(47) {{/U}} 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'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. {{U}}(48) {{/U}} Of the 15- to 16-year-olds, 72 percent signed confessions, as did 78 percent of the 12- to 13-year-olds.
"There'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. {{U}}(49) {{/U}}
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.
{{U}} (50) {{/U}}"In some ways," says Kassin, "false confession becomes a rational decision."
A In her experiment, participants were seated at computers and told not to hit the "alt" key, because doing so would crash the systems.
B Because of the stress of a police interrogation, they conclude, suspects can become convinced that falsely confessing is the easiest way out of a bad situation.
C "It's a little like somebody's working on them with a dental (牙齿的) drill," says Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
D "But the baseline is that adults are highly vulnerable too."
E The court found him innocent and he was released.
F Redlich also found that the younger the participant, the more likely a false confession.