Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management Area, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia.
Psychol Sci. 2021 Aug;32(8):1214-1226. doi: 10.1177/0956797621994770. Epub 2021 Jul 28.
False accusations of wrongdoing are common and can have grave consequences. In six studies, we document a worrisome paradox in perceivers' subjective judgments of a suspect's guilt. Specifically, we found that people (including online panelists, = 4,983, and working professionals such as fraud investigators and auditors, = 136) use suspects' angry responses to accusations as cues of guilt. However, we found that such anger is an invalid cue of guilt and is instead a valid cue of innocence; accused individuals (university students, = 230) and online panelists ( = 401) were angrier when they are falsely relative to accurately accused. Moreover, we found that individuals who remain silent are perceived to be at least as guilty as those who angrily deny an accusation.
错误指控很常见，而且可能会造成严重后果。在六项研究中，我们记录了一个令人担忧的矛盾现象，即在感知者对嫌疑人有罪的主观判断中。具体来说，我们发现人们（包括在线参与者，n=4983，以及欺诈调查员和审计员等专业人士，n=136）将嫌疑人对指控的愤怒反应作为有罪的线索。然而，我们发现这种愤怒是一种无效的有罪线索，而是无罪的有效线索；被指控的个体（大学生，n=230）和在线参与者（n=401）在被错误指控时比被准确指控时更愤怒。此外，我们发现，保持沉默的个体被认为至少和那些愤怒否认指控的个体一样有罪。
