Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The plea-bargaining system was designed to reduce the time and costs associated with the criminal justice process. Despite the well-meaning intentions behind the process, plea bargaining in practice has resulted in innocent individuals being found guilty and/or imprisoned in the name of procedural expediency. Previous research on plea bargaining has focused primarily on the final plea decision as it relates to economic decision-making and demographic differences between defendants final plea decision. Additional related research on false confessions further attempts to identify extralegal aspects of the process that may influence a persons likelihood to confess. However, no research has attempted to identify what, if any, extralegal, personality-based factors influence an innocent individuals likelihood to accept a plea bargain. The present study utilized a vignette design to determine how risk aversion, the tendency towards compliance with authority, and just world beliefs impact the likelihood that an innocent individual will plead guilty. Factual guilt was a significant predictor of plea decision across conditions, with guilty individuals being more likely to plead guilty compared to innocent individuals. For participants in the guilty condition, financial risk aversion was a significant predictor of plea decision, while participants in the innocent conditions final plea decision was significantly impacted by social risk aversion. These findings suggest that, although factual guilt appears to be the strongest predictor of plea decision across guilt condition, the impetus behind an individuals decision to accept a plea bargain fundamentally changes based on factual guilt or innocence.

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