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“Yes, I Have Sometimes Stolen Bikes”: Blindness for Norm‐Violating Behaviors and Implications for Suspect Interrogations

2013; Wiley; Volume: 31; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/bsl.2063

1099-0798

Melanie Sauerland, Jennifer Maria Schell‐Leugers, Jorg Collaris, Nils Karl Reimer, Marian Schneider, Harald Merckelbach,

Social and Intergroup Psychology

Across two experiments, we studied a phenomenon akin to choice blindness in the context of participants' accounts of their own history of norm‐violating behaviors. In Experiment 1, N = 67 participants filled in an 18‐item questionnaire about their history of norm‐violating behaviors (QHNVB). Subsequently, they were questioned about four of their answers, two of which had covertly been manipulated by the experimenter. Of the 134 manipulations, 20 (14.9%) remained undetected concurrently and 13 were accepted in retrospect (9.7%). In Experiment 2 ( N = 37), we inserted a one‐week interval between questionnaire and interview. Twenty‐seven (36.5%) of the 74 manipulations remained undetected concurrently and three were accepted in retrospect (8.1%). Data obtained in a four‐week follow‐up indicated that our manipulations may have long‐term effects on participants' perception of their own history of norm‐violating behaviors. Implications for the occurrence of false confessions during the course of an interrogation are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.