The “partial innocence” effect: False guilty pleas to partially unethical behaviors

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-stakes experimental paradigm and an immersive role-playing paradigm, we examined the psychology of experimentally-induced partial innocence on plea decisions. Participants were randomly induced to be either wholly innocent, guilty, or partially innocent of committing an academic transgression and then given the choice to accept or reject a plea deal to avoid disciplinary sanction. Partially innocent participants pled to cheating nearly as often as guilty participants and vastly more often than innocent participants. Partially innocent participants—not unlike guilty participants—experienced greater feelings of guilt than did innocent participants. In turn, these feelings of guilt, but not shame, were associated with taking responsibility for comparable, less severe, and more severe transgressions not committed.