Date of Award
Spring 5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department/Program
Forensic Psychology
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Charles B. Stone
Second Reader
Kelly McWilliams
Third Advisor
Pamela LiVecchi
Abstract
False confessions continue to be the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States, often because of coercive interrogation tactics (Kassin, 2008; Leo & Ofshe, 1998). Jurors frequently view confession evidence as highly persuasive, even when situations suggest it may be false (Kassin & Sukel, 1997). A confession becomes important when there are no other forms of evidence against the defendant, especially in cases where police detectives are pressured to decipher the crime (Gross, 2004). Additionally, confessions have shown to override other types of evidence when jurors make their decisions (Leo et al., 2013). To address this issue, the present study employed a between-subjects factorial experimental design to examine whether two interventions, expert testimony and mindfulness meditation, can improve jurors’ ability to assess confession evidence. Participants were assigned to one of the following conditions: mindfulness only, expert testimony only, mindfulness before expert testimony or expert testimony before mindfulness, and a control group. Jurors’ verdicts, guilt perceptions, sentencing recommendations, and confidence levels were measured. Results indicated that neither intervention significantly diminished guilty verdicts nor sentencing outcomes. However, correlations among decision-making variables suggest that mindfulness may encourage consistency in juror judgements, while expert testimony may promote awareness of coercive interrogation tactics without significantly changing verdicts. Further research is needed to explore how such interventions impact jurors’ perceptions of confession evidence and which factors contribute to more impartial decision-making.
Recommended Citation
Rzaca, Izabela, "Examining the Impact of Expert Testimony and/or Mindfulness Training on Jurors’ Appraisals of False Confessions" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/355
