Scientists finding answers–
An economics professor made the audacious suggestion a few years ago that the medieval practice of trial by ordeal “worked” because innocent people were more likely than guilty ones to pick up pieces of hot iron or plunge their bare hands into boiling oil.
The practice depended on suspects having unwavering faith that God would save the truly innocent from third-degree burns. And the priests in charge could temper the heat, just in case God wasn’t paying attention.
Likewise, less brutal means of psychological manipulation in U.S. criminal investigations may “work” to elicit confessions, but there’s a growing scientific case that currently acceptable tactics aren’t conducive to discovering the truth.
The recent mass distribution of videotaped interrogations, such as the ones featured in the Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer,” reveal that confessions aren’t always spontaneous acts of contrition, motivated by the need for a clear conscience. The interrogation process can still be something of an ordeal, with confessions coaxed by combinations of psychological pressure, deception and sheer exhaustion.