Interpersonal sensemaking and cooperation in investigative interviews: The role of motivational matching

The cylinder model of interpersonal sensemaking predicts that cooperation emerges in interactions where speakers are matched on motivational frames and cooperative rather than competitive in orientation. The purpose of the current study was to provide the first evidence of a causal link between motivational frame matching and cooperation and trust in an investigative interviewing context. Over two pre-registered experiments (N = 776), participants took the role of a suspect during an interaction with an interviewer. During the interaction, the interviewer and suspect either matched motivational frames (in an instrumental, relational or identity motivational frame) or not, in either a cooperative or competitive way. It was found that within a cooperative orientation interaction, motivational frame matching led to significantly higher willingness to cooperate and greater feelings of being understood among the participants. In contrast, within a competitive orientation interaction, motivational frame matching led to significantly less willingness to cooperate and identify with the interviewer.