A review of the collective interviewing approach to detecting deception in pairs

Abstract

Collective interviewing – the interviewing of multiple suspects simultaneously – has been neglected within the deception detection literature, yet it has the potential to have theoretical and practical implications for professionals involved in citizen security. The current review recaps the importance of lie detection and when collective interviewing can be used, before summarising the collective interviewing deception studies published to date. The published studies show that a lack of interactive and communicative cues, such as posing questions to one another, correcting one another, interrupting one another, finishing each other’s sentences and looking at one another, are significant indicators of deceit. The review highlights that theories about memory and group dynamics are crucial to understanding the deception occurring within groups, and therefore should be the focus of future collective interviewing deception studies. Additionally, some comparisons are made between individual and collective interviewing with the take-home message that collective interviewing should not replace individual interviewing, but that both types of interviewing should be used, perhaps sometimes in conjunction with one another.

Keywords:

• deception
• collective interviewing
• cognitive load
• memory
• groups

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.