Increasing the Disclosure of Information from Suspects in Investigative Interviews Through Brief Training in the Shift-of-Strategy Approach

The Shift-of-Strategy (SoS) approach is a recently developed interviewing technique designed to encourage semi-cooperative suspects to disclose more information. The approach’s efficacy has previously been demonstrated in highly controlled laboratory studies where the SoS approach was implemented through semi-scripted protocols. The current study is the first to develop and evaluate a 2-hour training program designed to teach novice interviewers to independently apply the SoS approach in mock interviews. We compared the SoS training with a program focused on foundational interviewing principles (Basic training). We predicted that participants receiving both types of training would elicit more information from mock suspects than those who only received Basic training. Participants (N = 31) acting as interviewers were assigned to one of three training conditions: Basic, SoS, or SoS-Delay. Basic participants only received Basic training before conducting four interviews with separate mock-suspects. The two SoS conditions received both types of training at different time points (before all four interviews for SoS, after two interviews for SoS-Delay). We recruited mock suspects (N = 124) to complete a mock crime before being interviewed. Interviewers who received the SoS training used SoS tactics more frequently and elicited more general information compared to those who only received Basic training. However, we observed no significant differences in interviewers’ ability to elicit previously unknown information. However, the use of several SoS tactics was positively associated with eliciting such information. These results demonstrate that even brief SoS training improves novices’ use of tactics and ability to elicit information.