Confession rates : does persuasion resistance time reduce them?.

Abstract

Confessions are given every day in criminal investigations across the country; countless are true confessions, but there are many false confessions as well. This study focused on participants' personality assessments and their confession rates, whether innocent or guilty, during an experiment that challenged their persuasive resistance when time was given to collect their self-control resources. Resistance to persuasive acts can reduce the rate of true and false confessions. The results from this study indicate that providing time to collect self-control resources does not have an effect on confessions obtained, but Machiavellianism from the Short Dark Triad personality assessment predicted obtained confessions overall.