Did I Really Do That?

This podcast explores the phenomenon of false confessions, interviewing psychologist Saul Kassin. Kassin details his research on why innocent people confess to crimes they didn't commit, categorizing confessions as voluntary, compliant, or internalized. He discusses his experiments demonstrating how police interrogation techniques, mirroring Milgram's obedience experiments, can induce false confessions, even with minimal pressure. The Central Park Jogger case is highlighted as a prime example where five teenagers gave false confessions, later exonerated by DNA evidence. Kassin advocates for fully recording interrogations and using evidence-based techniques to reduce the occurrence of false confessions in both criminal justice and corporate settings.