Transfer of Rapport in a Simulated Investigative Interview

ABSTRACT Recent research into effective investigative interviewing practice has focused on the benefits of interviewer‐interviewee rapport to successful outcomes. However, little research has addressed whether rapport developed between the interviewee and other law enforcement interactants can be transferred to the interviewer‐interviewee relationship. In the current study, 121 college students participated in an interview about their participation in potentially embarrassing illegal or unethical behaviours after having interacted with an experimenter. Participants were randomly assigned to either a rapport‐building experimenter or a neutral experimenter and to either a rapport‐building interviewer or a neutral interviewer. Although interaction with a rapport‐building experimenter did not directly increase perceptions of rapport with the interviewer, across interviewer rapport‐building conditions, it did indirectly affect perceptions of rapport with the interviewer, through perceptions of rapport with the experimenter. Additionally, perceptions of rapport with a rapport‐building interviewer were higher when the experimenter also tried to build rapport. Perceptions of rapport with the experimenter were greater when the interviewer built rapport. These results have implications for strategic use of rapport‐building behaviours among multiple interviewees and for officers who have initial contact with potential interviewees.