The impact of varying levels of consistency and coaching on deception detection accuracy of children’s injury reports

Abstract

The present study examined factors that impact the believability of children’s testimonies. There are both forensic and real-world implications for the believability of children’s testimonies in court and their given word. The present study aimed to examine transcripts of 8-10 year-olds who were coached or not in order to determine the impact of adding and removing inconsistencies on veracity assessments made by the general population (N= 1,383). It was hypothesized that consistency would account for the increased believability of coached reports. The study found that inconsistency impacted participants’ veracity decisions, with a greater number of less consistent transcripts being rated as untruthful. Coaching did not impact the believability of transcripts when consistency was considered. Overall, the hypothesis that consistency accounts for coaching’s increase in believability was supported.