填空题
Why Would They Falsely
Confess?
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 expels, if you understand what Call 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
grilling (盘问) is enormous.
{{U}} {{U}} 1
{{/U}} {{/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 Allison Redlich recently
conducted a laboratory determine how likely people are to confess to things they
didn't do study to {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/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}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}}
{{/U}}of the 15 to 16 years old, 72 percent signed confessions, as did 78 percent
of the 12 to 13 years old.
"There's no question that young
people are more at risk," says Saul Kassin, Professor at Williams College, who
has done similar studies with similar results. {{U}} {{U}} 4
{{/U}} {{/U}}a psychology 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.
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. {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}}
{{/U}}.
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. "In some ways," says Kassin, "false confession
becomes a rational decision."
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
adults are highly vulnerable too."
E. How could an innocent
person admit to doing something he didn't do?
F. Redlich also
found that the younger the participant, the more likely a false
confession.