Oral Presentation: Rapport-building: Chat vs. in-person witness interviews

Title: Rapport-building: Chat vs. in-person witness interviews

Abstract:

The psycholegal literature stresses the importance of rapport in investigative interviews. The recommended rapport tactics consist of verbal (e.g., establishing common ground) and non-verbal behaviors (e.g., displaying empathy). Most of the research, however, has examined rapport in in-person contexts, where both verbal and non-verbal behaviors are present. In this study, we were interested in the effectiveness of conducing online witness interviews via chat, which de-emphasize the use of non-verbal rapport. Witnesses (N = 131) experienced a virtual reality mock crime scenario and were interviewed in person or online via chat. We found that participants perceived rapport more positively when interviewed in-person on three measures: attentiveness, trust/respect, and expertise, indicating that non-verbal behaviors can be instrumental for the quality of rapport. Excluding non-verbal behaviors potentially cause hesitation, or even distrust. Two other measures of rapport, cultural similarity and connected flow, were not perceived differently across interview medium.

Even though our results showed that chat interviews may be less appropriate for building rapport in some respects, this did not result in the reporting of less crime-related details nor in lower overall statement accuracy. Overall, in-person interviews yielded better rapport ratings but were equally productive in terms of the quality of information obtained.