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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2018 Dec 7;13(12):e0208751.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208751. eCollection 2018.

Unanticipated questions can yield unanticipated outcomes in investigative interviews

Tom Parkhouse  1 , Thomas C Ormerod  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Unanticipated questions can yield unanticipated outcomes in investigative interviews

Tom Parkhouse et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Asking unanticipated questions in investigative interviews can elicit differences in the verbal behaviour of truth-tellers and liars: When faced with unanticipated questions, liars give less detailed and consistent responses than truth-tellers. Do such differences in verbal behaviour lead to an improvement in the accuracy of interviewers' veracity judgements? Two empirical studies evaluated the efficacy of the unanticipated questions technique. Experiment 1 compared two types of unanticipated questions (questions regarding the planning of a task and questions regarding the specific spatial and temporal details associated with the task), assessing the veracity judgements of interviewers and verbal content of interviewees' responses. Experiment 2 assessed veracity judgements of independent observers. Overall, the results provide little support for the technique. For interviewers, unanticipated questions failed to improve veracity judgement accuracy above chance. Reality monitoring analysis revealed qualitatively distinct information in the responses to the two unanticipated question types, though little distinction between the responses of truth-tellers and liars. Accuracy for observers was greater when judging transcripts of unanticipated questions, and this effect was stronger for spatial and temporal questions than planning questions. The benefits of unanticipated questioning appear limited to post-interview situations. Furthermore, the type of unanticipated question affects both the type of information gathered and the ability to detect deceit.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Mean interviewer accuracy (measured via 7-point Likert scale) across question type for truth-tellers and liars separately.
Error bars represent +/- 1 SEM.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Mean ratings of cognitive complexity (1 = very easy, 7 = very difficult) given to each interview type for truth-tellers and liars separately.
Error bars represent +/-1 SEM.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Mean word count of the responses provided by interviewees.
Error bars represent +/-1 SEM.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Mean observer accuracy (measured via 7-point Likert scale) across question type for truth-tellers and liars separately.
Error bars represent +/- 1 SEM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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