University of Twente Student Theses
Communication Errors in Investigative Interviews: The Impact of Judgment, Factual and Contextual Errors on Trust, Rapport and Willingness to Provide Information
Moosmayer, Elisa (2025) Communication Errors in Investigative Interviews: The Impact of Judgment, Factual and Contextual Errors on Trust, Rapport and Willingness to Provide Information.
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| Abstract: | Effective communication is crucial in investigative interviews to gather reliable information during criminal investigations. This study explores the impact of communication errors - factual, judgment, and contextual - on suspects' trust, rapport, and willingness to provide information. Building on previous research by Oostinga et al. (2018b), we introduce contextual errors to the existing framework of factual and judgment errors. A between-groups experimental design was employed, with participants assigned to one of four conditions: Judgment Error, Factual Error, Contextual Error, or Control. Results show that while overall trust was not significantly affected by errors, benevolence-based trust (affective trust) was notably reduced by judgment errors. Both judgment and factual errors negatively impacted rapport, with judgment errors having a particularly pronounced effect. However, contextual errors had a subtle influence on rapport when noticed, but did not significantly affect any other outcomes, including willingness to provide information. The study also highlights the importance of error detection, showing that participants' awareness of errors generally led to lower levels of trust, rapport, and willingness to provide information, especially when judgment and factual errors were detected. Limitations, including the low error detection rate and the online setting, point to the need for more immersive research methods. The results emphasize the importance of avoiding judgment errors to foster affective trust in investigative interviews. Recommendations for practice and future research are discussed to further examine communication errors and their implications for investigative interviews and other high-stakes interactions. Keywords: investigative interviewing, communication errors, trust, rapport, willingness to provide information. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/106067 |
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