Caught on Camera: The Influence of Video Evidence on Suspect Responses During a Mock Police Interview.

This study examines how the presentation of evidence—visual versus textual—affects suspects’ decisions to confess, deny, or remain silent during a mock police interrogation. In a preregistered, incentivized experiment (N = 130), participants were assigned to either a guilty or innocent condition and confronted with either video footage or a matched verbal description linking them to a staged theft. Results showed that video evidence, though inconclusive, significantly influenced suspect behavior. Both groups denied less after viewing video than after reading text. Instead, guilty participants were more likely to confess, whereas innocent participants more often remained silent. We discuss study limitations and implications for investigative interviewing policy, evidentiary standards, and the interpretation of silence in legal contexts. Whereas the limited power of the current findings call for further replication, they align with earlier research and point to the need for science-informed practices in the use and evaluation of video evidence within the justice system.