‘Rapport myopia’ in investigative interviews: Evidence from linguistic and subjective indicators of rapport

Beth H Richardson,Robert A Nash

doi:10.1111/lcrp.12193

Beth H Richardson, Robert A Nash

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/lcrp.12193

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Abstract

PurposeRapport‐building has beneficial effects in investigative and security contexts. However, there remains limited understanding of the extent of agreement between different parties in their judgments of rapport.MethodsWe observed 133 mock suspect interviews, and subsequently surveyed the lead interviewer and secondary interviewer (trainees undertaking an undergraduate Policing programme), the ‘suspect’ (an actor), and an expert observer (a retired, highly experienced police detective). Each of these parties provided subjective judgments of the degree of rapport that had been formed between suspect and lead interviewer. Furthermore, we assessed whether these subjective judgments were associated with the degree of ‘Language Style Matching’ (LSM) between lead interviewer and suspect: a key linguistic measure of interpersonal synchrony.ResultsThe suspect, secondary interviewer, and expert observer had generally good agreement about the degree of rapport achieved, as evidenced through significant, moderate to strong correlations between their rapport ratings. However, these parties’ rapport ratings were weakly associated with those of the lead interviewer. Our linguistic analysis provided similar results: the extent of LSM was significantly associated with suspects’ and the expert’s subjective ratings of rapport, but not with the interviewers’ ratings.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that the demands of interviewing might impede interviewers’ insight into the success of their rapport‐building efforts, leading them to overlook cues that other parties rely upon. We discuss the need for future experimental manipulations to directly test this suggestion, and we consider the value of interpersonal synchrony in defining and measuring rapport.

Highlights

It is argued that rapport is achieved through communicating positivity, friendliness, and mutual attention (Tickle-Degnen & Rosenthal, 1990; Vallano and Schreiber Compo, 2015); many of these definitions stem from the counselling literature, whereas investigative interviewers typically have less concern with forging positive relationships and more concern with developing mutual cooperation and respect in goal orientation
In a sample of genuine suspect interviews, Richardson, Taylor, Snook, Conchie, and Bennell (2014) found that suspects tended to converge over time on the language style of their interviewer, and that the extent of this matching was positively associated with increases in cooperation in the form of confession. These findings suggest Language Style Matching’ (LSM) could play an important role in signalling rapport and, in turn, facilitate effective intelligence gathering within suspect interviews
The present exploratory study assessed the extent to which interviewers’ judgments of rapport in mock suspect interviews would align with those made by other involved parties, and with the degree of LSM between the interviewer and suspect

Summary

Introduction

This positive association, between rapport indicators and information gain, has been observed in field studies of suspect interviews. The present exploratory study assessed the extent to which interviewers’ judgments of rapport in mock suspect interviews would align with those made by other involved parties (the suspect themselves, an expert observer, and a secondary interviewer), and with the degree of LSM between the interviewer and suspect.

Results

Conclusion