Assessing alibi believability: the alibi story, presence of physical evidence and timing of disclosure.

The content of the alibi story, corroborative physical evidence and timing of the alibi's disclosure may all affect alibi believability. CloudResearch workers ( = 276) read a mock case. The defendant's alibi story was scandalous (or neutral), included a receipt (or no mention), and was disclosed one day (or three weeks) later. Participants rated the alibi's believability, the defendant's character, and rendered a verdict. As expected, alibi believability ratings were higher when the alibi story was neutral versus scandalous ( < .01) Similarly, the defendant was viewed positively on all eight traits when the alibi story was neutral ( < .05). The defendant was seen as more trustworthy when he did not have a receipt than when he did ( < .05). Alibi timing had little impact on the dependent measures, but participants were more certain in their verdicts when the alibi was early versus late ( < .05).