Did I Really Do That?

Have you ever been falsely accused of something? Many of us think there’s only one way we’d act in such a situation: we’d defend ourselves. We’d do whatever it takes to clear our name — and above all else, we’d never, ever confess to something we didn’t do. But psychologist Saul Kassin (jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/saul-kassin) says that’s a myth. This week, we bring you a favorite 2022 episode about why we sometimes act against our own self-interest — even when the stakes are at their highest.

In this week's episode, you'll learn about:

• Why we often freeze and fail to defend ourselves when someone accuses us of something

• The various types of false confessions

• What happens in our minds when we're pressured to confess to something that we didn't actually do

• How police interrogation tactics are being used in workplaces and other organizations

• Potential solutions to the problem of false confessions

For more on the psychological dimensions of criminal justice, check out our episode on the infamous Stanford prison experiment (hiddenbrain.org/podcast/how-monsters-are-made).

And if you'd like to check out the research of Saul Kassin and others on this topic, visit our web page for this episode (hiddenbrain.org/podcast/did-i-really-do-that).

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