Such a thing is extremely anti-social and is, I hope, criminalized itself.
I doubt that criminalisation would change much. Without having researched this, I would assume that people make false confessions when they believe they would be convicted even if they didn’t confess.
I’m also not sure what’s supposed to be so extremely antisocial about it. It’s not like the police will surely catch the responsible party if only you don’t make that false confession to get a more lenient sentence.
If you change your story, the probability of your guilt is 1.00. If one version of your story includes a false accusation (i.e., of another person), that goes up to 2.00
Well, one shouldn’t be using such heuristics without prior research into the matter, precisely because of the typical mind fallacy. You couldn’t imagine innocent people changing their stories—but it happens. So what does that say about the validity of your inference from your own imagination to the expected behaviour of other people?
You couldn’t imagine innocent people changing their stories—but it happens. So what does that say about the validity of your inference from your own imagination to the expected behaviour of other people?
I didn’t see the above when I first read your comment; maybe I was busy forming, mentally, my reply, below, to the rest of what you said. I direct you to the comment I just posted, at 02 February 2014 11:49:15PM, in response to Wes_W.
I also doubt that criminalisation would change much.
It wouldn’t hurt.
I’m also not sure what’s supposed to be so extremely antisocial about it. It’s not like the police will surely catch the responsible party if only you don’t make that false confession to get a more lenient sentence.
Presumably, a false confession increases the likelihood that a case will be erroneously closed. That, in my estimation, makes it extremely antisocial, not least because it increases the likelihood that a criminal is not only at large but is unrecognized as such. Every person is obliged to avoid giving his or her fellow human beings false information about crime.
Are you a neurological outlier in some respect so that you could not grasp the implications of my question, or are you just being an annoyingly uncooperative communicator? By the way, I don’t believe for your claim about thousands for a split-second. I wouldn’t even believe it if you had said “hundreds”. I’ll be impressed if you manage in reasonable time for “tens”.
I had failed to generate this as a hypothesis, but now that you bring it up, it makes the second possibility appear much more likely since it provides a possible motivation for the non-cooperativity. (This looks a bit like the conjunction fallacy, but it’s not really because possibilities that I had simply failed to think of play a role here...)
I responded to what I regarded as a ridiculous question. I’ve said enough to indicate my view of the seriousness of false confession. Do you really find it difficult to believe I could come up with countless examples of behavior that, say, you and I would agree is mildly antisocial—my neighbor’s failure to trim weeds that were partly obstructing our block’s common driveway, for one? You’re being pointless.
I doubt that criminalisation would change much. Without having researched this, I would assume that people make false confessions when they believe they would be convicted even if they didn’t confess.
I’m also not sure what’s supposed to be so extremely antisocial about it. It’s not like the police will surely catch the responsible party if only you don’t make that false confession to get a more lenient sentence.
Well, one shouldn’t be using such heuristics without prior research into the matter, precisely because of the typical mind fallacy. You couldn’t imagine innocent people changing their stories—but it happens. So what does that say about the validity of your inference from your own imagination to the expected behaviour of other people?
I didn’t see the above when I first read your comment; maybe I was busy forming, mentally, my reply, below, to the rest of what you said. I direct you to the comment I just posted, at 02 February 2014 11:49:15PM, in response to Wes_W.
It wouldn’t hurt.
Presumably, a false confession increases the likelihood that a case will be erroneously closed. That, in my estimation, makes it extremely antisocial, not least because it increases the likelihood that a criminal is not only at large but is unrecognized as such. Every person is obliged to avoid giving his or her fellow human beings false information about crime.
Right, because the people making false confessions aren’t under enough psychological pressure already...
Can you give me an example of what you consider to be a mildly antisocial act?
At arbitrary costs to themselves… ?
Of course. I can probably give you thousands of them.
Are you a neurological outlier in some respect so that you could not grasp the implications of my question, or are you just being an annoyingly uncooperative communicator? By the way, I don’t believe for your claim about thousands for a split-second. I wouldn’t even believe it if you had said “hundreds”. I’ll be impressed if you manage in reasonable time for “tens”.
I think he answered your question by providing an example on the spot.
I had failed to generate this as a hypothesis, but now that you bring it up, it makes the second possibility appear much more likely since it provides a possible motivation for the non-cooperativity. (This looks a bit like the conjunction fallacy, but it’s not really because possibilities that I had simply failed to think of play a role here...)
I responded to what I regarded as a ridiculous question. I’ve said enough to indicate my view of the seriousness of false confession. Do you really find it difficult to believe I could come up with countless examples of behavior that, say, you and I would agree is mildly antisocial—my neighbor’s failure to trim weeds that were partly obstructing our block’s common driveway, for one? You’re being pointless.