Abstract
Credibility assessments are an important but complex part of asylum procedures. The current study investigated psychological assumptions underlying credibility assessments in Finnish first-instance asylum procedures and how these assumptions fit with widely accepted psychological science. Following previous research, we categorized assumptions in 56 real-life asylum cases from the Finnish Immigration Service. We found that asylum officials held assumptions about how truthful applicants present their claims, the plausibility of individuals’ behavior in their home countries, and applicants’ knowledge about asylum procedures. The assumptions were only partially in line with psychological science on memory, trauma, intercultural communication, and decision-making. To improve decision-making, training programs for asylum officials should include relevant findings from psychological science. To increase the transparency and combat bias, the written determination letters should also include explicit information about the decision-makers’ reasoning processes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 55-77 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Nordic Psychology |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 26 Nov 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Funding
This work was supported by a grant from Waldemar von Frenckell\u2019s Foundation to the first author (J.S), a grant (decision number: 151173) from The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland to the third author (J.A), and a grant from Sundell\u2019s Foundation to the last author (J.K).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Svenska Kulturfonden | |
| Sundell’s Foundation | |
| Waldemar von Frenckells Stiftelse | 151173 |
Keywords
- asylum procedure
- Asylum seeker
- credibility assessment
- credibility indicator
- decision-making
