Examining the effects of evidence disclosure timing and strength on information inconsistencies and provision within investigative interviews

Late disclosure of evidence within investigative interviews with guilty suspects has been shown to increase statement-evidence and within-statement inconsistencies, which are indicators of deception. We experimentally tested whether such inconsistencies were influenced by the timing of evidence disclosure and strength of the evidence. We also tested whether evidence disclosure timing or strength had any effect on the provision of novel investigative information, or the rapport and trust between interviewer and interviewee. We employed a 2(Evidence disclosure timing: Early vs Late) x 2(Evidence strength: Weak vs Strong) between-participants design. Participants (N = 101) role-played a suspect guilty of theft and were interviewed via videoconference. Participants were instructed to convince the interviewer that they were innocent. Late disclosure of evidence led to more statement-evidence inconsistencies and within-statement inconsistencies than early evidence disclosure. Evidence disclosure timing did not affect rapport or the provision of novel investigative information. There were no clear indications of the impact of evidence strength, however, we observed that the manipulations of evidence proximity and reliability did not consistently impact perceptions of the evidence’s strength.