Further insights into the relationship between the experience of life adversity and interrogative suggestibility

Abstract

Research over the past few years has uncovered a consistent link between the reporting of intense negative life events and interrogative suggestibility on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS). This study (N=130) now investigates the functional form of this relationship. Findings show that a linear regression model provides the most acceptable fit to the observed values for yield 1, yield 2, shift and total suggestibility scores. However, results also show the presence of non linear, quadratic, aspects to the relationship between the experience of life adversity and yield 1 scores. Up until now GSS scores were thought to increase linearly with level of adversity experienced: this study provides some evidence that, for the yield 1 subscale of the GSS, this may not be the case – high levels of adversity may not necessarily lead to an increased risk of accepting misleading information during questioning as once presumed.