Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales
Definition
Psychometric instruments (GSS-1, GSS-2) measuring Yield (acceptance of misleading suggestions) and Shift (changing answers under pressure). Used to assess whether a suspect's confession reflects genuine recall or interrogative suggestibility.
- Instruments
- GSS-1 and GSS-2
- Yield
- Acceptance of misleading suggestions
- Shift
- Changing answers under interrogative pressure
- Use
- Assesses reliability of a confession or interview account
Common questions
How do Yield and Shift differ in what they measure?+
Yield measures how readily a person accepts a leading or misleading question the first time it is put to them, while Shift measures whether they change a previous answer when told, falsely or otherwise, that they got it wrong and are pressed to try again. A high score on either flags heightened suggestibility.
What does a high suggestibility score mean for a confession's evidential weight?+
It does not prove a confession is false, but it indicates the person is more likely to have incorporated interviewer suggestions into their account under pressure, which courts and experts weigh alongside interview recordings and interrogation technique when assessing reliability.
Related terms
- Appropriate Adult
- UK PACE Code C requirement: a responsible adult (parent, guardian, social worker, or independent person) who must be present during the detention...
- Compliant False Confession
- A false confession given knowingly by an innocent suspect who yields to interrogation pressure to escape the immediate situation, to gain a...
- Internalised False Confession
- A confession in which the suspect has come to believe they committed the act, often as a result of intense questioning that...
- Kathi Kalu Oghad Principle
- The Indian Supreme Court's 1961 ruling interpreting Article 20(3) as prohibiting compelled testimonial statements. Combined with BSA provisions rendering police confessions inadmissible,...
- Miranda Warning
- The statement of rights that US police must deliver to a suspect before custodial interrogation, required by the Supreme Court's 1966 decision...
- PEACE Model
- A structured interview framework used by UK law enforcement and increasingly by private investigators: Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure,...
- Reid Technique
- The dominant North American police interrogation method developed by John E. Reid and Fred Inbau (1962; 5th edition 2013). Characterised by a...
- Selvi V. Karnataka
- Indian Supreme Court 2010 ruling holding that compulsory narcoanalysis, polygraph, and BEAP procedures violate Article 20(3) as testimonial compulsion. Governs the admissibility...