A comfortable witness is a good witness: rapport-building and susceptibility to misinformation in an investigative mock-crime interview

Major investigative interviewing protocols such as the Cognitive Interview recommend that investigators build rapport with cooperative adult witnesses at the beginning of a police interview. Although research substantiates the benefits of rapport‐building on the accuracy of child witness reports, fe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied cognitive psychology 2011-11, Vol.25 (6), p.960-970
Main Authors: Vallano, Jonathan P., Compo, Nadja Schreiber
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Assistants
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive ability
Cognitive interviews
Cognitive psychology
False information
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Learning. Memory
Memory
Misinformation
Personal relationships
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Recall
Susceptibility
Witnesses
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Summary:Major investigative interviewing protocols such as the Cognitive Interview recommend that investigators build rapport with cooperative adult witnesses at the beginning of a police interview. Although research substantiates the benefits of rapport‐building on the accuracy of child witness reports, few studies have examined whether similar benefits apply to adult witnesses. The present study investigated whether verbal rapport‐building techniques increase adult witness report accuracy and decrease their susceptibility to post‐event misinformation. One‐hundred eleven college adults viewed a videotaped mock‐crime, received post‐event misinformation (or correct information) about the crime, and were subsequently interviewed by a research assistant who built rapport (or did not build rapport) before recalling the mock‐crime. Results indicated that rapport‐building increased the quality of witness recall by decreasing the percentage of inaccurate and misinformation reported, particularly in response to open‐ended questions. We discuss implications and recommendations for law enforcement. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0888-4080
1099-0720
1099-0720
DOI:10.1002/acp.1789