The “Partial Innocence” Effect: False Guilty Pleas to Partially Unethical Behaviors

Abstract

Although research has focused on the “innocence problem,” “partial innocence” may also plague individuals who plead guilty to crimes they did not commit, but that are either comparable, more severe, or less severe than their actual crimes. Using a high-stake experimental paradigm and an immersive role-playing paradigm, we examined the psychology of partial innocence. Students were randomly induced (or imagined themselves) to be innocent, guilty, or partially innocent of committing an academic transgression and then given the choice to accept or reject a deal to avoid disciplinary sanction. Across three studies ( Ns = 88, 75, 746), partially innocent students pled to cheating nearly as often as guilty students and vastly more often than innocent students. Partially innocent students—not unlike guilty students—experienced greater feelings of guilt than did innocent students. In turn, these feelings of guilt, but not shame, were associated with taking responsibility for a range of transgressions not committed.