Assessing alibi believability: the alibi story, presence of physical evidence and timing of disclosure

Abstract

The content of the alibi story, corroborative physical evidence and timing of the alibi’s disclosure may all affect alibi believability. CloudResearch workers (N = 276) read a mock case. The defendant’s alibi story was scandalous (or neutral), included a receipt (or no mention), and was disclosed one day (or three weeks) later. Participants rated the alibi’s believability, the defendant’s character, and rendered a verdict. As expected, alibi believability ratings were higher when the alibi story was neutral versus scandalous (p < .01) Similarly, the defendant was viewed positively on all eight traits when the alibi story was neutral (ps < .05). The defendant was seen as more trustworthy when he did not have a receipt than when he did (p < .05). Alibi timing had little impact on the dependent measures, but participants were more certain in their verdicts when the alibi was early versus late (p < .05).

Keywords:

• alibi
• alibi believability
• defendant
• juror perceptions
• jury decision-making
• mock jurors

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Elon University for its support of this project.

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Meredith Allison has declared no conflicts of interest

Ashlynn Hawes has declared no conflicts of interest

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (Institutional Review Board) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study