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You Have the Right to Understand: The Deleterious Effect of Stress on Suspects’ Ability to Comprehend Miranda

  • Original Article
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Law and Human Behavior

Abstract

Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436, 1966) required that suspects be explicitly warned of the right to avoid self-incrimination and the right to legal representation. This research was designed to examine whether stress, induced via an accusation of wrong-doing, undermined or enhanced suspects’ ability to comprehend their Miranda rights. Participants were randomly assigned to either be accused (n = 15) or not accused (n = 15) of having cheated on an experimental task in a two-cell between-subjects experimental design. Results supported the hypothesis that stress undermines suspects’ ability to comprehend their Miranda rights. Participants who were accused of cheating exhibited significantly lower levels of Miranda comprehension than participants who were not accused of cheating. The theoretical processes responsible for these effects and the implications of the findings for police interrogation are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We also conducted the seven individual main analyses without participants’ ACT scores using seven ANOVAs. Results remained the same in terms of trends and significance with two exceptions. The CMR-R and the RC subscale of the FRI instrument that were significant when ACT scores were included as a covariate (ps = .04) became marginally significant when ACT scores were excluded from the analyses, ps = .07.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, W112 Lagomarcino Hall, Ames, IA, 50011-3180, USA

    Kyle C. Scherr & Stephanie Madon

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  1. Kyle C. Scherr
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  2. Stephanie Madon
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Correspondence to Kyle C. Scherr.

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Scherr, K.C., Madon, S. You Have the Right to Understand: The Deleterious Effect of Stress on Suspects’ Ability to Comprehend Miranda . Law Hum Behav 1 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-011-9283-3

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