Lay person’s and psychology officers’ beliefs about memory, investigative interviewing and deception detection: data from Malaysia

Abstract

It is very typical for people to think that the understanding of psychological phenomena is a matter of common sense. In many parts of the world, the general public and even some professional groups, often express commonly held beliefs about topics in psychology that are not in line with up-to-date scientific literature. To date, comparable data from Malaysia is lacking. In this study, 101 psychology officers serving the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as 130 student and community members in Malaysia completed a survey on beliefs about human memory, detecting lies and police interviews. Generally, participants possessed beliefs that were not in line with current psychological research, which is consistent with findings from many parts of the world. This study serves as an important gauge of the advancement of the field in this region.