AUTHOR: Joe Navarro
PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today
DATE OF PUBLICATION: October 31, 2010
SUMMARY: Two hundred and sixty one people have been proven innocent by DNA testing in the United States since 1989. Seventeen of these people served time on death row. While these people were innocent, 25% of them admitted to committing the crime. In 100% of these cases, investigating officers were sure that these people were lying. People are generally very bad at reading non verbal language. We normally are right only 50% of the time, which is no better than chance. But in these 261 cases, each and every officer who was involved in the investigation was so sure of their ability to read these non-verbal signs that they would not consider the possibility of innocence. Often after many hours of interrogation (up to 12 hours), 25% of these people confessed. They had done nothing wrong, but they confessed to committing the crime anyway. This tells us that about 25% of people will admit to committing a crime they did not actually do in order to get out of an uncomfortable situation.
We realize now, that it is highly unreliable to judge a person for innocence or guilt based on what we see. If we are only right about half of the time, we might as well flip a coin. It is a scary thought that our system of justice is so flawed. We can convict people, even convincing them to confess, who are completely innocent. The very system that is attempting to keep us safe, is putting innocent people on death row.
LINKS TO STUDY: none
ARTICLE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spycatcher/201010/detecting-lies-v-detecting-truth-serious-implications
SUBMITTED BY: Rachel Walker
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