Innocence and Resisting Confession: A Critical Review & Analysis

This assignment is a critical review of a research article focusing on the physiological responses of innocent individuals during interrogation and their resistance to confessing. The review examines the rationale, methodology, findings, and conclusions of the study by Guyll et al. (2013), which in...Read More

Running head: CRITICAL REVIEW
Innocence and Resisting Confession During Interrogation: Effects on Physiologic activity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Article analysed-
Guyll, M., Madon, S., Yang, Y., Lannin, D. G., Scherr, K., & Greathouse, S. (2013).
Innocence and resisting confession during interrogation: Effects on physiologic
activity. Law and human behavior, 37(5), 366.
Introduction- Innocence refers to the absence of guilt, in relation to a wrongdoing or
crime. Several psychologists have originally considered children as innocent, however, later
on expounded on the fact that children are likely to lose their innocence when subjected to
some form of psychological trauma or stress (Gardner, 2014). In other words, the term
innocence also comprises of the lack of any legal guilt with respect to criminal deeds and
individuals lacking the mental capacity of understanding the nature of their conduct, are often
considered acquitted, irrespective of their behaviour. In addition, research studies have also
illustrated the fact that indications of memory errors directly undermine the personal view of
an individual, in the form of a capable epistemic agent (Puddifoot & Bortolotti, 2018).
Reports from a recently conducted project have also illustrated the presence of 1 out of 4
individuals who have had been unlawfully convicted and acquitted by DNA evidence, made
false admissions or impeaching statements (Innocenceproject.org, 2019).
Wrongful convictions have been associated with a compromise in the reasoning
capability of the suspect, which in turn can often be accredited to stress, exhaustion,
substance abuse, and mental limitations (Kassin, 2015). Furthermore, there is mounting
evidence for the fact that innocent suspects habitually failed to sufficiently defend themselves
in the course of interrogation, owing to their failure in completely appreciating the peril of the
circumstances (Scherr & Franks, 2015). It has also been established that blameless suspects
undervalue the threat of questioning and that fighting burdens to admit a crime, can lessen the
physiologic resources of the suspects, thereby leading to false acknowledgements. In

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addition, being a witness to family violence also results in toxic stress on the kids, with long-
term impacts on their emotional and brain development. This assignment will critically
analyse a research article and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
Rationale- The researchers provided the investigation rationale that ion, innocent
suspects typically confess to having committed criminal deeds, which they did not commit in
reality. In addition, the researchers also based their investigation on the fact that any kind of
confession, including false admissions as well, act in the form of convincing evidence of
fault, which in turn strongly impacts juror choices, and leads to the onset of prejudices, with
respect to the clarification of other proof towards supporting a guilty decision (Guyll et al.,
2013). The investigators have presented a compelling evidence on the need of conducting this
research by stating that people who are innocent display an increased likelihood of making
behavioural selections, which in turn intensify the risks of self- incrimination. Furthermore,
the researchers also based their study on the fact that there is an increased susceptibility
among the innocent to waive their rights, in comparison to their guilty counterparts, besides
the fact that the innocent individuals most often engage in a free discussion and also
cooperate during the interrogation.
Besides, the research rationale also took into account the concept of phenomenology
of innocence. This is in congruence to findings presented by other investigators who
elucidated that suspects having stronger belief in a just world (BJW) mannerism scores were
found to report lesser levels of nervousness while being subjected to interview, and also
demonstrated greater confidence in being adjudicated innocent (Guyll et al., 2013).
Furthermore, the observers also manifested more likelihood of judging suspects who had
been primed to be in possession of stronger BJW (Jordan & Hartwig, 2013). The research
was also based on the phenomenon of stress that was rightly defined as the psychological
condition that made people perceive their surroundings as intimidating, which in turn

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exceeded their coping skills and capabilities. Hence, it was accurately mentioned by the
researchers that if the innocent suspects have less appreciation for the danger, inherent to
their status, and report lack of trust and faith in their competence to persuade the
interrogators, they are expected to experience less stress, at the beginning of the interrogation,
in comparison to those who are found guilty. Furthermore, the researchers also accurately
identified the fact that innocents are found to primarily assert their blamelessness with
dynamism, and continue to do so until they are able to concurrently resist forcible
interrogation practices.
However, key information is missing from the articles since Vrij et al. (2017) stated
that harsh questioning approaches are ineffective, and have a tendency to increase resistance
among the suspects, in place of facilitating cooperation with the interrogators. They also
highlighted that the intimidating and confrontational type of strict interrogation is regularly
unwelcoming to the objective of easing the recovery of facts from reminiscence, thereby
lowering the likelihood that suspects will deliver information that are extensive, thorough,
and precise. Recent evidences by Deeb et al. (2018) also illustrates that young police officers
hold the belief that liars often attempt to eradicate within-statement discrepancy, unless
strategically presented with implicating proof. The researchers accurately proposed two
research hypothesis based on the facts presented above which were namely, (i) association
between innocence and physiological activity is an indication of stress, and (ii) resisting
confession burden is related with larger stress-associated physiologic activity (Guyll et al.,
2013).
Method and design- The researchers recruited 141 participants from Midwestern
University. Although not mentioned, it can be deduced that they employed the process of
convenience sampling for participant enrolment. The prime advantage of this non-probability
sampling technique can be accredited to the fact that it permits selection of subjects based on

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their convenient availability and nearness to the researcher. Taking into consideration the fact
that the wider population is often large for a research, this sampling technique facilitates
testing the representatives of the target population. However, one major disadvantage of this
sampling technique is that it leads to potential bias in the results (Etikan, Musa & Alkassim,
2016). Although the researchers stated that they had excluded nine participants from the
study, no detailed information on participant eligibility criteria had been provided. This
prevented determining the characteristics based on which subjects were considered
prospective for the investigation (Feragen, Stock & Rumsey, 2014). Detailed information on
inclusion and exclusion criteria is a significant standard of research that aids to generate
reliable results. The final sample comprised of 132 participants including 58 men and 74
women that comprised of people belonging to different ethnicities such as, Native Americans,
Asian Americans, European Americans, African Americans, and Asian Indians. Therefore,
the participants were representative of the wider population (Guyll et al., 2013).
Following participant recruitment, they were randomly assigned to two dissimilar
groups namely, innocent (n = 74) and/or guilty (n = 58) conditions. Randomisation of the
participants can be cited as the best procedure for elimination of selection bias between
participant groups, and is primarily performed for controlling determining the presence of a
cause and effect association between dependent and independent variables (Ruff et al., 2014).
This was succeeded by pairing the participants with an associate, and instructing them to
solve logic based problems, three jointly and three independently. The associate petitioned
and acknowledged help of the participants for solving the separate logic problems in the
guilty condition, rather than the innocent condition. This was followed by conducting an
assessment of the physiologic activity thrice, during each of three stages of the trial namely,
(i) prior to the investigational manipulation (baseline stage), (ii) at the time of allegation and
questioning (interrogation stage), and (iii) after confession or refusal to confess by the

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participants (post-confession stage). The researchers then measured heart rate (HR) and
systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) by utilising the WelchAllyn Spot Vital
Signs LXi equipment (Guyll et al., 2013).
Equally spaced intermissions for measuring these values helped in obtaining a
comprehensive account of the physiological changes that occurred in each participant. Other
outcomes were related to measurement of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) and
preejection period (PEP) (Guyll et al., 2013). Presenting the participants with confession
statement was a correct procedure. In addition, all research participants had been provided
with an informed consent form. Obtaining voluntary agreement from the participants was a
correct procedure since it allowed the subjects to gain a sound understanding of the research
advantages and its potential risks (Hardicre, 2014).
Each investigation session comprised of an estimated 75 minutes for completion. The
researchers described the trial as an examination into the consequence of stress and pressure
on physiologic activity. The pairs were also made to participate in a 3-min get-acquainted
practice that facilitated rapport building between the associate and the participant, thereby
increasing the likelihood of showing compliance with the request for cheating (Guyll et al.,
2013).
Findings- The researchers failed to determine any statistically significant correlation
between baseline physiologic and demographic variable (ps>.07). Furthermore, findings from
the exploratory analyses also revealed lack of differences allied with experimenters, in
relation to physiologic dependent variable (ps>.15). During debriefing, average participants
were found to report signs and symptoms of moderately anxiety at the time of being alleged
of dishonesty and cheating (M =2.98, SE =0.10). The participants who were innocent
reported less anxiety, in comparison to their guilty counterparts (M =2.66, SE =0.13 vs. M

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=3.39, SE =0.15; 95% confidence interval [CI] [-1.12, -0.33]), t(129)= 3.64, p =.001, d
=0.64). Showing congruency with the research hypothesis, it was also found that innocence
displayed a strong correlation with less SBP (b = -4.66 mmHg, 95% CI [-7.36, -1.96]), t(123)
=3.41, p <.001, and DBP (b= -1.60 mmHg, 95% CI [-3.02, -0.17]), t(123) =2.22, p =.028,
reactivity. In relation to RSA and HR, the consequences of being acquitted, in contrast to
guilty varied for both HR (b =5.83 bpm, 95% CI [2.92, 8.74]), t(253) =3.94, p <.001, and
RSA (b = -0.42 ln{ms2 }, 95% CI [-0.65, -0.19]), t(246) =3.64, p <.001) (Guyll et al., 2013).
Upon conducting a logistic regression analysis it was further found that innocent
participants demonstrated a reduced likelihood of confessing, than those who were guilty (b =
-1.44, OR= 0.06, 95% CI [0.02, 0.17]), Wald χ2 (1, N =132) =25.54, p <.001, d =0.98.). The
researchers also determine the association between confession and physiologic reactivity and
provided evidence for a significant impact of guilt-confession group for PEP, [F(2, 111)
=3.82, p =.025, d =0.34]. In addition, the post-confession values of PEP for innocent-refused
group were meaningfully larger than the baseline values (M = -13.9 ms, SE =4.5, 95% CI
[22.8, 5.0], t(235) -3.07, p =.002, d =0.40) (Guyll et al., 2013). Hence, through these findings
the researchers were able to establish the fact that innocent suspects often undervalue the risk
of questioning, and that struggling pressures to admit a crime can substantially lessen the
physiologic resources of the suspects, thereby leading to false confessions.
Discussion and conclusion- Through the investigation, the authors were able to
explore the impacts created by interrogation and accusation on the physiologic responses of
crime suspects. The findings presented above suggested that less physiological activity was
manifested by innocent participants, in relation to accusation and questioning, when
compared to the guilty participants. In addition, the innocent participants who were found to
deny fault, notwithstanding pressure to admit their role in the crime, exhibited high SNS
activity, in contrast to baseline. The research findings have major implication in real practice,

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such that it will help in promoting awareness on the fact that less stress is experienced by the
innocent people, in comparison to the guilty criminals, when subjected to a stringent process
of interrogation. Hence, observing the mannerisms and behaviour of the accused will help in
differentiating the guilty from the acquitted, thus aiding the process of verdict. Another
potential implication of the research is that dissemination of the findings will allow people of
the jurisdiction to create an ambience where the suspects are accused in a manner that
jeopardises the guilty, and not the innocent (Guyll et al., 2013). This will also facilitate
gaining an insight into the psychological functioning of the suspects.
Taking into account the fact that the results are consistent with the phenomenology of
innocence, the findings will allow psychologists and legal officers to understand the
mechanism that makes innocent suspects consider themselves as protected and safeguarded,
while being interrogated for any criminal conduct (Jordan & Hartwig, 2013). Further
importance of the findings can also be accredited to the facts that they provided adequate
evidence for the fact that innocent defendants who continue to refute guilt at the time of an
interrogation, generally experience a steady decline in their emotional and psychological
resources (Guyll et al., 2013). Nonetheless, the researchers also highlighted several
limitations such as, there were several ethical concerns prohibited the researchers from
employing stricter forced tactics like threat of stark punishment, sleep deprivation, and/or
argumentative questioning.
Hence, there remains uncertainty regarding manifestation of these relationship at the
time of actual police interrogation. In addition, the researchers also cited time constraint as a
major factor that impeded the process of investigation of the physiologic responses that were
generated. In addition, the fact that all participants were university undergraduates, and not
criminal suspects, might have also created an impact on the results. Therefore, there is a need

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to conduct the investigation among suspects, in order to establish congruency with these
research results.
References
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officers’ perceptions of statement inconsistency. Criminal Justice and
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Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4.
Feragen, K. B., Stock, N. M., & Rumsey, N. (2014). Toward a reconsideration of inclusion
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