On Second Thought: The Impact of Confessions, DNA, and Belief Perseverance on Students' Perceptions of Guilt and Interrogations

Despite growing public knowledge of false confession cases, research with students and community members continues to find that people assume confessions indicate guilt. The present research explored the implications of belief perseverance: the tendency to maintain a belief even when confronted with compelling contradictory evidence. Across two studies (vignettes in Study 1; video interrogation footage in Study 2), students' pre-existing beliefs regarding confessions led them to assume suspects who confessed were more guilty, and were interrogated more justly, than suspects who did not confess. Further, although being presented with post-conviction DNA evidence tempered participants' views, pre-existing beliefs about confessions continued to impact both suspect and interrogation perceptions in Study 1, and interrogation perceptions in Study 2. The implications of students exhibiting these biases and current legal safeguards focusing on confession voluntariness, rather than veracity, are discussed.