‘Being nice’ is effective when interviewing ethnic suspects

Detective must adapt interviewing techniques to suspect’s cultural background

30 September 2009 

The effectiveness of behavioural strategies that detectives use during investigative interviews depends on the suspect’s cultural background, according to research carried out by psychologist Karlijn Beune of the University of Twente. Evidently, arguments based on logical reasoning are most likely to succeed with non-ethnic suspects, while nice behaviour has a more positive effect with ethnic suspects. Beune is due to obtain her doctorate on 1 October at the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences.

During an investigative interview, a detective often uses different strategies to gather information. The Standard Interviewing Strategy applied in the Netherlands identifies two key strategies: 'being nice' and 'rational persuasion'. However, research by Karlijn Beune of the University of Twente reveals that these two behavioural strategies have a different effect on suspects, depending on whether they belong to the majority population or an ethnic minority. Direct logical behaviour (rational persuasion) turns out to be more effective when interviewing members of the majority population, while indirect relational behaviour (being nice) resonates more with ethnic suspects. This is the conclusion of three studies that Beune carried out for her research.

Chatting online with suspects
In the first study pupils were asked to commit a theft in a controlled setting. An experienced detective then interviewed the suspect. This interview was recorded in order to analyse the behaviour of both the suspect and the detective.
In the second study participants were asked to chat online with a detective. They were shown a film to help them imagine the mind-set of a thief. This was then followed by a virtual interview. In this way it was possible to establish which combinations of behavioural strategies were effective and whether the effects depended on the applied sequence of strategies and the suspect's cultural background.
The final study consisted of an analysis of video footage of real-life interviews with suspects. This cast light on the immediate impact of the various behavioural strategies on the suspect's willingness to provide information. Besides 'being nice' and 'rational persuasion', Beune also investigated the effect of more robust behaviour, such as giving warnings. First, she looked at the combination of robust behaviour with 'being nice' and 'rational persuasion' (based on good-cop/bad-cop strategy). Next, Beune studied whether a robust approach had a different effect when aimed at the person or at his or her social environment (family, friends). As with the earlier results, it was found that robust behaviour is most effective when it resonates with the suspect's cultural background.  

This research demonstrates that cultural differences most definitely play a role in investigative interviews. By adapting their behaviour to the suspect's cultural background, detectives improve their chances of establishing the truth.

Note for the press
Karlijn Beune did her doctoral research within the Research Group of Psychology & Communication of Health & Risk. She was supervised by Prof. Karen van Oudenhoven-Van der Zee, Prof. Hubert Coonen and Dr Ellen Giebels. Her thesis Talking Heads is digitally available on request.
Contact person for the press: Rianne Wanders, 053-4892721.