The effects of interrogator hostility and apparent severity of offense on coerced false confessions

Attempts to compare the interrogation techniques of "minimization" are inconclusive because the techniques differ on two variables. In "minimization" the personal tone is friendly, and the severity of offense is understated. "Maximization" involves an unfriendly personal tone and an overstatement of the severity of the offense. The present research sought to disentangle this confound by independently varying personal tone and perceived offense severity in a 2x2 Factorial design, employing Kassin's (1996) "False Confession" paradigm. Results indicated that, the highest confession rate was obtained in the "friendly tone, understated severity" condition, with lower rates when either of the variables was changed. Implications of these findings for further research and application are discussed.