Advancing The Shift-Of-Strategy Approach: Shifting Suspects’ Strategies in Extended Interviews Article Swipe
YOU?
·
· 2023
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/b7mvq
· OA: W4380624365
The Shift-of-Strategy (SoS) approach is an interrogation technique designed to obtain new information from suspects. The SoS approach elicits information by shifting suspects’ counter-interrogation strategies from less, to more forthcoming by challenging discrepancies in the statement. The current study presents a robust empirical test of the SoS approach, involving longer interviews than previously tested. We also tested a new variation of the approach; SoS-Reinforcement, where suspects’ statements were strategically summarized by the interviewer. N = 300 participants completed an online mock crime procedure and were interviewed using one of the two SoS versions or with an interviewing approach which involved no confrontation of discrepancies. The SoS versions elicited more information from participants than direct questioning. Participants interviewed with the SoS-Reinforcement technique had slightly more negative experiences of being interviewed compared to the remaining conditions. In essence, the present study provides additional support of the effectiveness of the SoS approach while illuminating possible experiential downsides associated with being subjected to the SoS-Reinforcement approach.
