The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (CYOA) Research Paradigm
A different approach to defendant decisions
In forensic psychology and criminology research, much attention has been paid to factors that influence individuals’ decisions to commit crimes. However, this focus has been absent in research evaluating criminal defendants’ decision-making. In part, evaluating such variables has been challenging to psycho-legal researchers because of the inherent limitations of current paradigms used to evaluate confession and plea decisions: high-stakes deception studies, retrospective self-reports from convicted defendants, and vignette studies that ask participants to imagine themselves in a given situation. The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure offers another option to researchers interested in these decisions. Based on a highly popular series of young adult fiction of the same name, the CYOA paradigm enables participants to experience a complete criminal prosecution process, and make multiple dependent decisions throughout the process, as they would in the real world. Some CYOA Advantages Include:
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Ability to model multiple dependent decisions, while maintaining experimental control.
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Simple, cost effective study set-up, using any survey software.
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Ability to customize all elements, including randomizations, decision points, and story line.
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Good preliminary evidence of participant engagement and investment in decisions made.
Below, the entire study procedure is depicted. Note the highlighted decision points and randomization points.
The CYOA in action
Initial paradigm evaluation data
Participants' choices and decisions in the first implementation of the CYOA paradigm are displayed below. This data includes 154 young U.S. men included on Amazon MTurk. Data and results are described in detail in a paper (2021) in Psychology, Crime & Law.
Data indicate that participants felt engaged, invested, and emotionally-connected with their character in the CYOA experience.
Mean ratings are reported on a +3/-3 scale, where 0 (zero) represents a neutral response, +3 represents a strong positive response, and -3 represents a strong negative response.
