[Negative response bias and assessment of uncooperativeness in independent medical evaluations]

The present article highlights how simple it appears to be to simulate symptoms and how often medical and forensic experts are unable or unwilling to properly identify such attempts at deception. Yet, experts usually lack a critical understanding of the limitations of their own powers of judgement. Although carefully developed and reliable approaches and procedures are available today to verify the validity of symptoms, these are often applied unwillingly. Despite sound base-rate estimates, cooperativeness in forensic evaluations is often accepted without proper critical assessment. In German speaking countries, more empirical research on civil forensic assessment would help to improve the quality of expert opinions.