Advancing the Shift-of-Strategy approach: Shifting suspects' strategies in extended interviews

Area of Science:

• Forensic Psychology
• Investigative Interviewing Techniques
• Criminal Justice

Background:

• Interviewers struggle to obtain information from suspects who are willing to talk but conceal incriminating details.
• The Shift-of-Strategy (SoS) approach is designed to elicit new information from such suspects.
• This study tests standard (SoS-Standard) and a new variation (SoS-Reinforcement) against a control condition (Direct).

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically test the effectiveness of the SoS approach in eliciting new information.
• To compare SoS-Standard and SoS-Reinforcement against a Direct interviewing approach.
• To assess the impact of SoS techniques on participants' interview experience.

Main Methods:

• 300 participants completed a mock crime procedure and were interviewed using one of three techniques: SoS-Standard, SoS-Reinforcement, or Direct.
• Participants' disclosure of previously unknown information was measured.
• Post-interview assessments of the interview experience were collected.

Main Results:

• Both SoS-Standard and SoS-Reinforcement led to significantly more disclosure of previously unknown information compared to the Direct condition.
• SoS-Reinforcement did not significantly outperform SoS-Standard in information disclosure.
• Participants interviewed with SoS-Reinforcement reported more negative experiences than those in the Direct condition.

Conclusions:

• The Shift-of-Strategy approach is effective in eliciting new information from reluctant suspects.
• The SoS-Reinforcement technique may have negative experiential consequences for interviewees.
• Further research can explore optimizing SoS techniques to balance information gain and interviewee experience.