Social, Forensic, and Media Psychology: Law and Reform in Current Practices Surrounding Influence

With Brian L. Cutler, Ph.D.

Jun 23, 2025

The law is out of date on topics regarding how the mind works and how much social influence can sway people to do and believe things that are not common sense. This was one of the main inspirations for my doctoral work at Fielding Graduate University. I was honored to speak with Dr. Brian L. Cutler, Ph.D., on this episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum. Dr. Cutler serves at the University as both a Professor and Program Director. He received his doctorate in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987.

Dr. Cutler has held research grants from the National Science Foundation of the United States and the Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada. He has worked on many publications, including Editor and Author of The APA Handbook of Forensic Psychology, the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law, Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures, Conviction of the Innocent: Lessons from Psychological Research, and five other books.

The Importance of Social Psychology in Past and Upcoming Research

Social Psychology is one of the pillars of the Mental Health profession. Research within this field has led us to understand better what motivates or propels an individual towards consensus or boundaries within groups and what they believe to be the truth. This can often lead an individual to view themselves as performing certain roles within social groups. It helps that person decide where reality is situated.

Dr. Cutler and I started our discussion by talking a bit about his work in forensics and law enforcement analysis. We discussed false confessions and how a person might be convinced to work against their best interests. We also discussed Attribution Theory within psychology, a judgment we make about the cause of another person’s behavior vs. our own.

Dr. Cutler said questions such as, “What’s wrong with them?” often get asked about a person who falls into a coercive trap or behaves incorrectly in a social situation. When explaining others’ behavior, we are more likely to make attributions to the types of people they are rather than to the situations they are in. By contrast, we tend to explain our own behavior as caused by the situation we are in. This is Attribution Theory, he explained. In reality, “Other people are just as impacted by their situations as we are,” he said, “So that’s a bias that we have.”

False or Coerced Confessions in Law Enforcement

Dr. Cutler helped explain some of the ways that police may be able to coerce a false confession out of someone despite it being against their best interests. The first way is by isolating the individual away from friends, family, or even legal counsel. As he explained, social psychology is about how people are influenced by situational forces external to themselves. “We look to others for information, support, and understanding of how to behave, what to think, what to believe. And we’re very influenceable,” he noted. Isolating an individual takes away or replaces social support structures.

“So, you’re extremely isolated. You might have been there a long time and getting worn down. You might be motivated to end this, and all the while, the interrogators may be doing things like confronting you with evidence of your guilt. This may be real evidence. This may also be completely fabricated “evidence.” This may be exaggerated evidence,” Dr. Cutler explained. He continued, “In the United States, police are allowed to lie to suspects.”

The authority figure, such as a law enforcement officer, is commonly not cruel or intimidating. They commonly attempt to make it appear that they are helping the person being questioned in various ways. They may seem to minimize the crime or the suspect’s involvement. Dr. Cutler then goes on to explain that there are at least 38 different interrogation tactics used that might be analyzed for coercion toward confession.

Dr. Cutler noted someone confessing to something they did not do might consider a thought such as, “I’m just better off confessing and hoping for a lenient treatment, or at the very least to end this really obnoxious situation.” He stated that in known cases of wrongful confession, the interrogation may have gone on as long as many hours. Officers may be rotated to keep the questioner fresh-minded while the suspect is given little rest. There may even be multiple interrogations over days or weeks. Dr. Cutler also discussed a scenario where a confession might become contaminated by the officer leaking bits of information that only the guilty party would know. That information may then make its way into a false confession; thus, the suspect appears guilty.

Distinguishing False Claims from Repressed Memories in Cults or Groups

I noted that suggestive interviewing can occur in many instances within psychology treatment sessions. Dr. Cutler agreed, stating that this could happen on purpose or inadvertently. In the cases of false confessions or claims, the person may even come to believe that the lie is reality.

“We naturally look to other people to understand reality, particularly in ambiguous situations. So, when you believe something and then multiple people around you, multiple people you trust, tell you something different, it makes you question yourself, right? And if you’re a reasonable, rational person, you would consider the possibility that your belief is wrong,” Dr. Cutler said. We then discussed the importance of psychoeducation based on social psychology research, such as the Asch Conformity Experiment and the Milgram Obedience Experiment. We discussed the usefulness of educating ourselves and others on the power of authority around influence and how people modify their understanding of reality based on others.

Current Research and the Future of Social and Media Psychology

In the last few minutes of our conversation, we discussed Dr. Cutler’s role as Program Director for Media Psychology at Fielding Graduate University, where his work focuses on the impact of media and technology. We discussed how people can get locked into echo chambers of confirmatory influence through their own choice or algorithm influence. I noted the usefulness of news aggregators such as Ground News, which focuses on seeing every side of the story and displaying each to the readers. Additionally, there are charts specifically to analyze media for bias. I encouraged listeners to explore these tools.

“This human species has been so successful based on trust and cooperation, not on fear, hatred and disgust,” I said. Dr. Cutler added, “We know that as social animals, we rely on others to help understand our reality, and those others can vary greatly on how truthful and helpful they are.” We ended our conversation by noting that people are more vulnerable to taking a biased mental shortcut when they are too busy or moving fast through the world. This is a good reminder to slow down and thoroughly examine the reality in front of us.