Research project Ethnical discrimination in the legal context
The current project "Ethnical discrimination in the legal context: The role of interviewees’ native language for accuracy and suggestibility in investigative interviews" examines how a persons language (native vs. non-native) affects their accuracy and susceptibility to suggestions in investigative interviews.
Investigative interviews are often cognitively demanding which can increase the risk of giving in to suggestions. Cognitive demand can be assumed to be particularly high for non-native speaking interviewees due to language difficulties.
One reason for this may be that the interviewee in such a case need to inhibit their primary language since it competes with the non-primary language. Not being able to withstand suggestion implicates a high risk for erroneous and false testimony, with potentially far-reaching consequences in a legal process.
To date, there are however few published studies investigating the role of interviewee language for memory accuracy, perceived credibility and suggestibility.
Project description
Our previous data indicate that non-native as compared to native interviewees yield to more suggestive questions and perceive themselves as less credible (Alm, Helmy Rehnberg, & Lindholm, 2019).
In a series of experiments this project aims to investigate if the primary language of a person interviewed in a forensic setting affects susceptibility to leading questions and accuracy. Among other things we will explore interviewee behaviors that are associated with being perceived as credible.
The results will contribute with new insights into mechanisms governing cognitive and self-regulatory load, suggestibility and accuracy. The results are further expected to lead to development of routines that increase quality of investigative interviews with persons with a different native language than Swedish and also to counteract ethnic discrimination in legal settings.
Project members
Project managers
Charlotte Alm
Associate Professor
Torun Lindholm Öjmyr
Professor
Members
Raver Gültekin
PhD Student
Freja Isohanni
PhD Student
Sofie Liljestrand Hassoun
Research assistant