Costs and Consequences of Deception, Coercion, and False Confessions

Author(s):  
William Douglas Woody ◽  
Krista D. Forrest

This chapter introduces readers to the Norfolk Four, whose false confessions led to years in prison despite failure of their confessions to fit evidence and differences among their confessions. The authors examine the legal process by which investigators corroborate confessions. The authors then move from legal to psychological issues, including typical cognitive biases and social factors that interfere with corroboration of confessions. The authors next examine ways that confessions corrupt the subsequent investigations and evidence, particularly when officers, intentionally or unintentionally, contaminate and format a confession so that it appears to fit the evidence. The chapter concludes with a review of the ways the totality of the circumstances can increase the likelihood of mistaken conviction.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Peón ◽  
Manel Antelo

Financial management decisions are made by people, and people, in all instances, are shaped by their behavioral traits. Here we provide extensive insight on the theoretical and empirical analysis made on cognitive biases and their influence on financial decisions. To provide a systematic exposition, we set three broad categories: heuristics and biases, choices (including framing and preferences) and social factors. We then describe the main biases within each category and provide an extensive revision of the main theoretical and empirical developments about their impact on financial decisions.


Author(s):  
H. Kent Baker ◽  
Greg Filbeck ◽  
John R. Nofsinger

People tend to be penny wise and pound foolish and cry over spilt milk, even though we are taught to do neither. Focusing on the present at the expense of the future and basing decisions on lost value are two mistakes common to decision-making that are particularly costly in the world of finance. Behavioral Finance: What Everyone Needs to KnowR provides an overview of common shortcuts and mistakes people make in managing their finances. It covers the common cognitive biases or errors that occur when people are collecting, processing, and interpreting information. These include emotional biases and the influence of social factors, from culture to the behavior of one’s peers. These effects vary during one’s life, reflecting differences in due to age, experience, and gender. Among the questions to be addressed are: How did the financial crisis of 2007-2008 spur understanding human behavior? What are market anomalies and how do they relate to behavioral biases? What role does overconfidence play in financial decision- making? And how does getting older affect risk tolerance?


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengyee Janie Chang ◽  
Yan Luo

Purpose This paper aims to examine major cognitive biases in auditors’ analyses involving visualization, as well as proposes practical approaches to address such biases in data visualization. Design/methodology/approach Using the professional judgment framework of KPMG (2011), this study performs an analysis of whether and how five major types of cognitive biases (framing, availability, overconfidence, anchoring and confirmation) may occur in an auditor’s data visualization and how such biases potentially compromise audit quality. Findings The analysis suggests that data visualization can trigger and/or aggravate the common cognitive biases in audit. If not properly addressed, such biases may adversely affect auditors' judgment and decision-making. Practical implications To ensure that data visualization improves audit efficiency and effectiveness, it is essential that auditors are aware of and successfully address cognitive biases in data visualization. Six practical approaches to debias cognitive biases in auditors’ visualization are proposed: using data visualization to complement rather than supplement traditional audit evidence; positioning data visualization to support rather than replace sophisticated analytics tools; using a dashboard with multiple dimensions; using both visualized and tabular data in analyses; assigning experienced audit staff; and providing pre-audit tutorials on cognitive bias and visualization. Originality/value The study raises awareness of psychological issues in an audit setting.


Crisis ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoon A. Leenaars ◽  
David Lester

Canada's rate of suicide varies from province to province. The classical theory of suicide, which attempts to explain the social suicide rate, stems from Durkheim, who argued that low levels of social integration and regulation are associated with high rates of suicide. The present study explored whether social factors (divorce, marriage, and birth rates) do in fact predict suicide rates over time for each province (period studied: 1950-1990). The results showed a positive association between divorce rates and suicide rates, and a negative association between birth rates and suicide rates. Marriage rates showed no consistent association, an anomaly as compared to research from other nations.


2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 252-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel G. Calvo ◽  
P. Avero ◽  
M. Dolores Castillo ◽  
Juan J. Miguel-Tobal

We examined the relative contribution of specific components of multidimensional anxiety to cognitive biases in the processing of threat-related information in three experiments. Attentional bias was assessed by the emotional Stroop word color-naming task, interpretative bias by an on-line inference processing task, and explicit memory bias by sensitivity (d') and response criterion (β) from word-recognition scores. Multiple regression analyses revealed, first, that phobic anxiety and evaluative anxiety predicted selective attention to physical- and ego-threat information, respectively; cognitive anxiety predicted selective attention to both types of threat. Second, phobic anxiety predicted inhibition of inferences related to physically threatening outcomes of ambiguous situations. And, third, evaluative anxiety predicted a response bias, rather than a genuine memory bias, in the reporting of presented and nonpresented ego-threat information. Other anxiety components, such as motor and physiological anxiety, or interpersonal and daily-routines anxiety made no specific contribution to any cognitive bias. Multidimensional anxiety measures are useful for detecting content-specificity effects in cognitive biases.


Author(s):  
Chiara Vari ◽  
Patrizia Velotti ◽  
Alessandro Crisi ◽  
Silvana Carlesimo ◽  
Antonio G. Richetta ◽  
...  

Abstract. A broad range of literature reported higher rates of psychopathology and personality disorders among patients affected by skin conditions. Specifically, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideations are more frequently reported by patients affected by skin diseases. This study aimed to examine psychopathology and personality in a group of patients affected by psoriasis by means of a self-report measure (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – MCMI-III) and a performance-based technique (Wartegg Drawing Completion Test [WDCT], CWS). Study results showed a higher rate of passive-aggressiveness and paranoia among psoriatic patients (MCMI-III). When assessing patients through the performance-based technique (WDCT, CWS), a higher rate of global rejection (GR) – linked by previous literature to suicidal ideation – and a lower affective quality of the drawings emerged. We discuss the clinical importance of detecting psychological issues in dermatology patients by means of a multimethod assessment that goes beyond patients’ self-evaluation of their symptoms and emotions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 90-100
Author(s):  
Justė Lukoševičiūtė ◽  
Kastytis Šmigelskas

Abstract. Illness perception is a concept that reflects patients' emotional and cognitive representations of disease. This study assessed the illness perception change during 6 months in 195 patients (33% women and 67% men) with acute coronary syndrome, taking into account the biological, psychological, and social factors. At baseline, more threatening illness perception was observed in women, persons aged 65 years or more, with poorer functional capacity (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III or IV) and comorbidities ( p < .05). Type D personality was the only independent factor related to more threatening illness perception (βs = 0.207, p = .006). At follow-up it was found that only self-reported cardiovascular impairment plays the role in illness perception change (βs = 0.544, p < .001): patients without impairment reported decreasing threats of illness, while the ones with it had a similar perception of threat like at baseline. Other biological, psychological, and social factors were partly associated with illness perception after an acute cardiac event but not with perception change after 6 months.


1996 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-134
Author(s):  
Howard R. Hall
Keyword(s):  

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