Rapport‐building: Chat versus in‐person witness interviews

Abstract

AbstractTactics recommended for rapport‐building consist of verbal (e.g., finding common ground or shared experiences) and non‐verbal (e.g., affirmations, displaying empathy) behaviours. Most of the research on rapport, however, has examined it in in‐person contexts, where both verbal and non‐verbal behaviours are present. In this study, we were interested in the effectiveness of rapport‐building when conducting online witness interviews via chat, which de‐emphasises the use non‐verbal rapport behaviours, compared to traditional in‐person interviews. Participants (N = 131) experienced a virtual reality (VR) scenario depicting a mock crime and were interviewed either in person or online via the chat function in Skype. Participants perceived rapport more positively when interviewed in person for three measures: attentiveness, trust and respect and expertise. Two other measures, cultural similarity and connected flow, were not perceived differently across interview medium. Participants interviewed online via chat disclosed similar amounts of crime‐related information and were just as accurate as participants interviewed in person. We found that in‐person interviews yielded better rapport ratings than interviews via chat but were equally productive in terms of the quality of information obtained, as measured by crime‐related details and accuracy. If witnesses are to be interviewed via chat, investigators must carefully consider how to compensate for the lack of those non‐verbal rapport tactics that influence witnesses' perceptions of attentiveness, trust/respect and investigator's expertise.