Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

detection.” 259 The implication drawn from the model is that people are suggestible
“when the conditions are such that they are unable to discriminate satisfactorily
between what they observed and what is suggested to them.” 260
On the other hand, the individual differences approach “has specific
applicability to police interrogation and views suggestibility as being dependent
upon the coping strategies that people can generate and implement when
confronted with the uncertainty and expectations of the interrogative situation.” 261
The model tries to “explain individual differences in suggestibility,” and its main
premise is that “people vary considerably in their reactions to police interrogation,
even when the conditions of the situation are similar.” 262 Gudjonsson and Clark
define interrogative suggestibility as “the extent to which, within a closed
social interaction, people come to accept the messages communicated during
formal questioning, as the result of which their subsequent behavioral response
is affected.” 263 Thus, the definition implies the following five interrelated
components: 264
• A closed social interaction between interrogator and subject.
• A questioning procedure that involves two or more participants.
• A suggestive stimulus.
• Acceptance of the suggestive stimulus.
• A behavioral response to indicate whether or not the suggestion is
accepted.
Given these characteristics, Gudjonsson argues that interrogative suggestibility
differs from other types of suggestibility in four respects: 265
• It involves questioning procedures within a closed social interaction.
• The questions asked deal mainly with past experiences and events,
recollections, and remembered states of knowledge, as opposed to
traditional types of suggestibility, which are primarily concerned with
motor and sensory experiences of the immediate situation.
• It has a strong component of uncertainty related to the cognitive
processing capacity of the individual.
• It typically involves a highly stressful situation with important
consequences for the person being interviewed.
Thus understood, the Gudjonsson model is “essentially a social-psychological
model, where interrogative suggestibility is construed as arising through a
particular relationship between the person, the environment, and significant
259
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Id., p. 280.
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Id., p. 280-281.
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