Does eyewitness and interviewer gender influence children’s reports? An experimental analysis of eyewitness and interviewer gender on children’s testimony

Abstract

This study examines how children's age, gender and interviewer gender affected children's testimony after witnessing a theft. Children (N ¼ 127, age ¼ 6-11 years) witnessed an experimenter (E1) find money, which he/she may/may not have taken. E1 then asked the children to falsely deny that the theft occurred, falsely accuse E1 of taking the money, or tell the truth when interviewed by a second experimenter. Falsely denying or falsely accusing influenced children's forthcomingness and quality of their testimony. When accusing, boys were significantly more willing than girls to disclose about the theft earlier and without being asked directly. When truthfully accusing, children gave lengthier testimony to same-gendered adults. When denying, children were significantly more willing to disclose the theft earlier to male interviewers than to females. As children aged, they were significantly less likely to lie, more likely to disclose earlier when accusing, and give lengthier and more consistent testimony.

Examining the influence of children’s temperament, externalising and internalising problems on crime disclosure.

“…First, this study examined whether age was a significant predictor of disclosing behaviours. In line with findings from previous research (Foster et al, 2019;Wyman et al, 2019), all models found that age was associated with disclosure of the mock crime. Older children (i.e., 10-13 years of age) were more likely to tell the truth compared to younger children (i.e., 7-9 years of age) at the end of the interview.…”

“…Lying and its emergence in early childhood have been extensively studied as part of children’s normative development (Lyon et al, 2014; Talwar & Crossman, 2011, 2012). Altogether, literature on the developmental course of lie telling has provided insights on the age of onset of lie telling in children (e.g., Evans & Lee, 2013; Talwar & Lee, 2008), the frequency of their deceptive behaviours (e.g., Evans et al, 2011), the types of lies told (e.g., Talwar & Crossman, 2011), and the complexity of children’s lies (e.g., Foster et al, 2019; Talwar et al, 2007). From a behavioural perspective, lying is a common social phenomenon in both children and adults and appears to emerge in the preschool years as a function of normative cognitive development and develops through the elementary school years (Talwar & Crossman, 2011).…”

Using cognitive instructions to elicit narrative differences between children's true and false testimonies

“…The current study aims to conduct a comprehensive examination of the differences between children's true and false statements about a high-cost event obtained using an interview incorporating cognitive instructions. Many studies have examined children's lie-telling about low-cost events (e.g., Saykaly et al, 2016;Talwar et al, 2004Talwar et al, , 2016, but few (e.g., Foster et al, 2019;Tye et al, 1999) have done so with high-cost events that mimic those that children may experience and be asked to report on in real life, such as being a victim of abuse, or witnessing a crime (Lyon, 1999). Factors that influence children's lietelling in a high-stakes scenario may differ from those that influence their lie-telling in a low-stakes scenario; therefore, it is important to examine children's lie-telling tendencies and abilities in a high-stakes scenario (Foster et al, 2019).…”

“…Many studies have examined children's lie-telling about low-cost events (e.g., Saykaly et al, 2016;Talwar et al, 2004Talwar et al, , 2016, but few (e.g., Foster et al, 2019;Tye et al, 1999) have done so with high-cost events that mimic those that children may experience and be asked to report on in real life, such as being a victim of abuse, or witnessing a crime (Lyon, 1999). Factors that influence children's lietelling in a high-stakes scenario may differ from those that influence their lie-telling in a low-stakes scenario; therefore, it is important to examine children's lie-telling tendencies and abilities in a high-stakes scenario (Foster et al, 2019). In the current study, the high-stakes scenario was a theft; although witnessing a theft does not have the same effects on children as experiencing abuse does, all children are aware that stealing is a serious transgression.…”

“…Previous studies have examined forthcomingness by looking at the timing of disclosure. Using interviewing protocols that included cognitive instructions, Foster et al (2019) and Wyman, Foster et al (2019) examined the forthcomingness of 6‐ to 11‐year‐old children's testimonies about a theft by examining at what point during the interview children disclosed. Neither study, however, compared interview protocols that included cognitive instructions with those that did not.…”