Theory in practice: A temporal assessment of the revised behavioral influence stairway model via simulated suicide negotiation

In academia it is common to use models to capture reality. So, when practitioners want to use academic research for their practice, this is what they are confronted with. Yet, this way of working may come at a cost. What if reality is not fully covered in the model yet practitioners strictly adhere to it? In this presentation we focus on this dilemma within a recent study into the Revised Behavioural Influence Stairway Model (Vecchi et al., 2019) that is commonly used by suicide negotiators. According to this model, the only pathway to behavioural change of the suicidal person is through sequential steps: empathy, rapport, trust, and influence. Suicide negotiators, however, experienced that behavioural change was sometimes possible right from the start of a negotiation. Via an online pre-programmed suicide negotiation (N = 94) we show that following the stairway maximises the chances of behaviour change (55%), but also, that in 32% of the cases behavioural change could be achieved earlier in the negotiation w