The Gestural Misinformation Effect in Child Interviews in Switzerland

• Published in: Journal of nonverbal behavior Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 99 - 114
• Main Authors: Meyer, Kendra Rita, Blades, Mark, Krähenbühl, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; False information; Forensic science; Interviews; Original Paper; Personality and Social Psychology; Psychology; Social Sciences; Sociology; Switzerland; Gestures; Gestural misinformation effect; Child interviewing; Child eyewitness interviews
• ISSN: 0191-5886; 1573-3653
• DOI: 10.1007/s10919-022-00419-0

Gestures embody concepts in the form of universal representations. Researchers have highlighted that social communication often embodies nonverbal behavior. A forensic interviewer’s nonverbal behavior, such as gesturing during an interview, could communicate misleading information and may cause inaccuracies in the interviewees’ testimonies. The current study was conducted in Switzerland and included 108 child participants, in three age groups (a younger sample aged 6–9 years, n = 32) (a middle sample aged 10–11 years, n = 40) and an older sample aged 12–13 years, n = 36). Participants viewed a video and completed an interview about the video, individually, immediately after. During the questioning, the interviewer deliberately misled the interviewees with nonverbal gestures. The results showed that 95 children were misled by at least one gesture and that gestures led to a significant decrease in accuracy. Children also incorporated misleading gestures and reported false information; adding to existing evidence that misinformation can also be communicated through nonverbal gestures. Our findings demonstrate the negative influence of misleading gestures in child eyewitness interviews and provide more evidence for the robustness of the gestural misinformation effect, reported in previous research.