title: Short-sighted confession decisions: the role of uncertain and delayed consequences.
abstract: Suspects have a propensity to focus on short-term contingencies, giving disproportionate weight to the proximal consequences that are delivered by police during an interrogation, and too little consideration to the distal (and often more severe) consequences that may be levied by the judicial system if they are convicted. In this research, the authors examined whether the perceived uncertainty and temporal distance of distal consequences contribute to this propensity. Using the repetitive question paradigm (Madon et al., 2012), participants (N = 209) were interviewed about 20 prior criminal and unethical behaviors and were required to admit or deny each one. Participants' denials and admissions were paired with both a proximal consequence and a distal consequence, respectively. Results indicated that the distal consequence had less impact on participants' admission decisions when it was uncertain and temporally remote. These results provide evidence that the perceived uncertainty and temporal distance of future punishment are key factors that lead suspects to confess to crimes in exchange for short-term gains.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
authors.forename: Yueran
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Madon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guyll
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D035846:Law Enforcement; D008297:Male; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult