A Novel Paradigm for Examining Alibi Corroboration and Evidence Interaction: Does a Confession Affect the Likelihood of Alibi Corroboration for Friends and Strangers?

We examined the possibility that hearing about a confession could influence potentially exonerating information proffered by a familiar or unfamiliar alibi corroborator. College students (N = 268) brought a friend to a team building session. After the team building session, we asked participants to corroborate an alibi for either their friend or a stranger accused of theft. We also manipulated whether the suspect confessed and the timing of when the confession information was presented to participants. Friends were more likely than strangers to be alibi corroborators across multiple scales and dependent measures. Further, potential corroborators who heard about the suspect's confession were less likely than those who did not know of the confession to be willing to serve as an alibi corroborator; hearing about a suspect's confession after making an initial alibi corroboration caused participants to change their decisions. Qualitative analyses also suggest several possible motivations given by corroborators and noncorroborators. Implications for police procedure and research design are discussed.