Did I Really Do That?

What It Covers

Psychologist Saul Kassin reveals how innocent people confess to crimes they didn't commit through police interrogation techniques modeled after Milgram's obedience experiments, contaminating evidence and leading to wrongful convictions including the Central Park Five case.

Key Questions Answered

• •Confession contamination: False confessions corrupt surrounding evidence in 80% of wrongful conviction cases. Eyewitnesses, alibis, and forensic examiners change their testimony after hearing a confession, even when the confession is false, creating cascading errors throughout investigations.
• •Interrogation duration risk: Average interrogations last one to two hours, but false confessions average sixteen hours of questioning. Sleep deprivation, isolation from social support, and deprivation of basic needs make suspects increasingly vulnerable to suggestion and compliance over extended periods.
• •Truth detection failure: Police and laypeople detect lies at 54% accuracy—no better than chance. Police officers show higher confidence but lower accuracy than college students, particularly overbelieving false confessions, leading to closed cases while actual perpetrators remain free to commit additional crimes.
• •Internalized false memories: Suspects can be manipulated into believing they committed crimes through fake polygraph results and leading questions. Psychologist Gisli Gudjonsson's research shows negative feedback and suggestive questioning cause people to insert false information into their memories, especially children and vulnerable individuals.