The verifiability of a suspect's alibi is often interpreted as a sign of innocence. Because the police resources are limited, verifiability could be used to dismiss suspects of minor offenses. We examined whether alibi verifiability actually indicates innocence for minor crimes. In Experiment 1, participants imagined they were guilty or innocent suspects of minor crimes and selected a response to convince the police of their innocence. Compared to innocent suspects, guilty suspects were more likely to select pseudo-verifiable responses (which seemed verifiable but were not) rather than non-verifiable responses. Experiment 2 revealed that pseudo-verifiable responses increased observers' perceptions of innocence (rather than guilt). Experiment 3 suggested that people infer the police will not verify alibis of minor crimes, which may lead people to invent pseudo-verifiable responses. These results indicate that apparent verifiability does not necessarily indicate innocence. The police should systematically test alternative hypotheses whenever they encounter apparent verifiable responses.

中文翻译：

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“不是我，检查一下摄像头！” 嫌疑人明显可验证的反应可能并不表明他无罪

嫌疑人不在场证明的可验证性通常被解释为无罪的标志。由于警方资源有限，可核查性可用于驳回轻微犯罪嫌疑人。我们研究了不在场证明是否确实表明轻微犯罪无罪。在实验一中，参与者想象自己是有罪或无罪的轻微犯罪嫌疑人，并选择一个反应来让警方相信他们是无辜的。与无辜嫌疑人相比，有罪嫌疑人更有可能选择伪可验证的响应（看似可验证，但实际上并非如此），而不是不可验证的响应。实验 2 表明，伪可验证的反应增加了观察者的无辜感（而不是有罪感）。实验3表明，人们推断警方不会核实轻微犯罪的不在场证据，这可能会导致人们发明伪可验证的反应。这些结果表明，明显的可验证性并不一定表明无罪。每当警察遇到明显可验证的反应时，他们就应该系统地测试替代假设。