Investigative Interviewing: Harnessing The Power Of The Team

Teams are ubiquitous in the world of work, in part because they offer the capacity to reduce workload and enhance performance on complex tasks. One task that has taken on heightened importance in today\u27s world is the investigative interview, an information- gathering interview that is conducted in settings as diverse as airport screening, military checkpoints, law enforcement, corporate fraud, and intelligence settings. The goal of this research is to examine how the power of teams may be exploited by utilizing pairs of interviewers to conduct the investigative interview. Results indicate that there are benefits and drawbacks to tandem interviews. Specifically, tandem interviewers achieved superior interview outcomes than individual interviewers, including a reduction in cognitive demand, more attention to issue-relevant information (i.e., story cues), and greater use of open-ended questions. On the other hand, the use of tandem interviewers resulted in lower interviewee rapport and tandem interviewers were no more adept at detecting deception than single interviewers. In brief, the results suggest a tangible benefit to the tandem interview. Implications for practice and application are discussed