Meredith Allison (Assistant Professor of Psychology) presented a research project on alibi believability with student co-authors Kyla Mathews (‘09), Stephen Michael (‘08, now in the Ph.D. program in Legal Psychology at UTEP), and Hyeman Choi (exchange student 2006-7, now in the Master’s program in psychology at Sungkyunkwan University, Korea).
The title of their presentation was: “Alibi believability: The effect of salacious alibi activities, alibi strength, suspect age, and the type of crime.” Their research showed that more believable alibis were those that were supported by strong physical evidence (e.g., videotape). Suspects who admitted to engaging in salacious activities at the time of the crime were viewed as having more believable alibis and as being less guilty of the crime than suspects who admitted to engaging in non-salacious activities. It is likely that suspects who had salacious alibis were viewed as honest because it was not in their self-interest to admit to morally questionable acts. The American Psychology-Law Society’s annual conference was held in San Antonio, Texas.