Strategic interviewing to elicit admissions: Making guilty suspects more forthcoming

The current study aimed to alter the counter-interrogation strategies of guilty suspects by influencing their perception of the evidence with the goal of eliciting admissions. Participants (N = 90) were asked to perform several mock criminal tasks before being interviewed using one of three interview techniques: (1) Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) (2) Early Disclosure of Evidence; or (3) A Control interview. Suspects in the SUE condition (vs. other conditions) (1) had more statement-evidence inconsistencies, (2) disclosed more admissions, and (3) perceived the interviewer to have had more information than s/he actually did.