Perceived suspect credibility: a brief report on the association between suspect and observer gender

The current study examined the influence of gender on perceived credibility in an international drug trafficking setting. Two hundred law students (approximately half female) assessed a suspect’s credibility in a drug trafficking investigation. The participants read a transcript provided by either a male or a female suspect and rated a suspect as truthful/untruthful and their confidence level in this rating. The combined score represents credibility judgement. ANCOVA indicated a significant main effect of participant gender and a significant interaction between participant gender and suspect gender. Men considered the suspect as more credible than women, but this difference manifested only in the case of a male suspect. In the case of a female suspect, there was no significant gender difference between the participants. These findings highlight the dynamic interplay of the gender of both participants and suspects in the judgement bias field and are discussed in the context of defensive attribution theory. The applied implications address investigations, interrogations and other processes that surround them.