Hypnotic interviewing: the best way to interview eyewitnesses?

Abstract

It has been suggested that hypnosis techniques may have the potential to enhance eyewitness memory in forensic investigations. However, laboratory research shows that increases in recall with hypnosis techniques are often associated with decreases in accuracy, false confidence in incorrect information, and increased suggestibility to leading questions and misleading post‐event information. These problems limit the usefulness of hypnosis as an interviewing procedure. However, in practical investigations, many factors associated with hypnosis, apart from the hypnotic induction itself, might lead to memory enhancement compared with standard police interviews. For example, hypnotic interviewers, because of their psychological, clinical, and interpersonal skills, may be better interviewers than police officers. They may use effective interviewing strategies such as those associated with the “cognitive interview”; a procedure which has the potential to enhance recall by approximately 35% without the problems of memory distortion associated with hypnosis. It is concluded, therefore, that a cognitive interview procedure should be used in preference to hypnosis. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

What People Believe about How Memory Works: A Representative Survey of the U.S. Population

“…Although hypnosis can lead to more recall by encouraging people to adopt a more lenient criterion [24], it does not lead to more accurate recall (for overviews see [25], [26]). The popular support for hypnosis is somewhat surprising given the degree to which the courts already treat hypnosis-based recollections as untrustworthy.…”

Eyewitness testimony: tracing the beliefs of Swedish legal professionals

“…Although the research on forensic hypnosis has not generated clear-cut results, empirical findings indicate that, compared with a standard interview, hypnosis can elicit more information (Geiselman, Fisher, MacKinnon, & Holland, 1985), but this increase in recall may be related to a decrease in accuracy and an increased degree of suggestibility (Kebbel & Wagstaff, 1998;Pinizzotto, 1989), such as an increased vulnerability to leading questions (Wrightsman, 2001).…”

Significant Dates in the History of Forensic Hypnosis

“…Kebbell and Wagstaff (1998) argued that laboratory research demonstrated that increases in recall with hypnosis also result in decreases in accuracy. Furthermore, they claimed, hypnosis induces false confidence in incorrect recollections and it results in "increased suggestibility to leading questions and misleading post-event information" (p. 115).…”