Purpose

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature on information elicitation. The authors investigated the impact of social influence strategies on eyewitness recall performance. Specifically, the authors examined the effect of social influence techniques (Cialdini, 2007) on recall performance (Experiment 1) and conducted a follow-up experiment to examine the incremental effect of social proof on the report everything cognitive interview mnemonic (Experiment 2).

Design/methodology/approach

Participants watched a video depicting vandalism (Experiment 1: N = 174) or a verbal altercation (Experiment 2: N = 128) and were asked to recall the witnessed event. Experiment 1: Participants were assigned randomly to one of six conditions: control (open-ended prompt), engage and explain (interview ground rules), consistency (signing an agreement to work diligently), reciprocity (given water and food), authority (told of interviewer’s training) and social proof (shown transcript from an exemplar participant). Experiment 2: The authors used a 2 (social proof: present, absent) × 2 (report everything: present, absent) between-participants design.

Findings

Across both experiments, participants exposed to the social proof tactic (i.e. compared to a model exemplar) spoke longer and recalled more correct details than participants not exposed to the social proof tactic. In Experiment 2, participants interviewed with the report everything mnemonic also spoke longer, recalled more correct details, more incorrect details and provided slightly more confabulations than those not interviewed with the report everything mnemonic.

Originality/value

The findings have practical value for police investigators and other professionals who conduct interviews (e.g. military personnel, doctors obtaining information from patients). Interviewers can incorporate social proof in their interviewing practices to help increase the amount and accuracy of information obtained.

中文翻译：

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助推目击者：社会影响对回忆目击事件的影响

目的

本研究的目的是为信息获取的文献做出贡献。作者调查了社会影响策略对目击者回忆表现的影响。具体来说，作者研究了社会影响技术（Cialdini，2007）对回忆表现的影响（实验 1），并进行了一项后续实验来检验社会证据对报告一切认知访谈助记符的增量影响（实验 2）。

设计/方法论/途径

参与者观看了一段描述破坏行为（实验 1：N = 174）或言语争吵（实验 2：N = 128）的视频，并被要求回忆目睹的事件。实验1：参与者被随机分配到六个条件之一：控制（开放式提示）、参与和解释（面试基本规则）、一致性（签署勤奋工作协议）、互惠（给予水和食物）、权威（讲述采访者的培训）和社会证明（显示样本参与者的成绩单）。实验 2：作者使用了 2（社会证明：存在、缺席）× 2（报告一切：存在、缺席）参与者间设计。

发现

在这两个实验中，与未接触社会证明策略的参与者相比，接触社会证明策略的参与者（即与模型范例相比）发言时间更长，并且回忆起更多正确的细节。在实验2中，与未接受《一切助记符》报告采访的参与者相比，接受《一切助记符》报告采访的参与者也说得更长，回忆起更多正确细节、更多不正确细节，并提供了更多的虚构内容。

原创性/价值

研究结果对于警方调查人员和其他进行访谈的专业人士（例如军事人员、从患者那里获取信息的医生）具有实用价值。采访者可以将社会证据纳入采访实践中，以帮助增加所获得信息的数量和准确性。