Lay perceptions of child witnesses: effects of presentation of rapport building in forensic interviews

Rapport building is an important component of forensic interviews with children, especially about alleged sexual abuse. Because interviews are presented as evidence in trials, an important consideration is whether seeing interview rapport affects juror perceptions. We addressed this by examining how rapport, child age and participants' gender affect perceptions of a child witness and defendant guilt. Participants (N=478, M=36.6 years, SD=12.3, 47% female), recruited via Prolific, read a forensic interview transcript of a child's disclosing sexual abuse that varied interviewer rapport (high, moderate, minimal) and child age (5, 9, 13 years). Participants in the high rapport condition rated the child as more credible and felt more positively about the interviewer, and the 5-year-old was perceived most favourably. Overall, positive effects of rapport building extend beyond their influence on children's accounts. Presenting rapport building to jurors may help bolster a child's credibility, though other factors (e.g., child age) remain important.