False confessions though rare do happen. Our visceral reaction is if you confessed you are guilty. After all why would anyone confess, particularly ro a serious crime, if they did not do it. Yet we know false confessions occur. There is an interesting  new article available via SSRN and authored by Andrew Pardieck, Vanessa Edkins and Lucian Dervan. Here is its abstract:

The authors conducted a multi-year psychological deception study in the United States, Japan, and South Korea to gain greater understanding of the phenomenon of false pleas of guilty by the innocent.  The study also explored whether innocent participants would be willing to offer false testimony in return for the benefits of a plea bargain.  Our data indicate that a significant number of individuals are not only willing to falsely plead guilty in return for a benefit, they are also willing to falsely testify against others in official proceedings to secure those advantages for themselves.

This is the first time laboratory research has demonstrated the false plea phenomenon in different countries, cultures, and legal systems.  It is also the first time laboratory research has documented the phenomenon of false testimony in return for the benefits of a plea bargain.  The article also contains information regarding the history of plea bargaining in the United States, Japan, and South Korea, a discussion of the current debate about plea bargaining in each jurisdiction, and a brief review of potential paths forward to address plea bargaining’s innocence problem.