Studying sequential processes of criminal defendant decision-making using a choose-your-own-adventure research paradigm

Research into suspect and defendant decision-making has predominantly utilized three paradigms: retrospective accounts, vignettes, and cheating paradigm studies. All three have been limited in their ability to capture the complexity and interdependence of decisions across the legal process, prompting arguments for the need to devise additional research paradigms for the study of defendant decision-making. In this paper, we describe the development and initial testing of a new paradigm with which to study these decisions: a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (CYOA) experiment depicting the entire legal process, in the context of a campus sexual assault allegation. Using data from 154 predominantly white (75%), college-age (M = 23.43, SD = 2.3), heterosexual (71%) male participant-defendants, we evaluate the advantages of the paradigm in capturing the complexity of the legal process, while generating strong participant immersion. Bayesian SEM analyses indicated interrelatedness among several participant decisions, highlighting the impact of self-assignment of guilt status and attorney advice on subsequent decisions. Participants also reported strong emotional investment in their character's outcomes, perceptions of agency and control, as well as situational realism within the paradigm. Results show the promise of the CYOA as a cost-effective, engaging, easily customizable paradigm with which to study criminal defendant decision-making.