Are emotions and psychophysiological states experienced when observing a child sexual abuse interview associated with confirmation bias in subsequent question formulation?

Abstract

When interviewing children in suspected child sexual abuse (CSA) cases, a common mistake is for interviewers to only ask questions that aim at confirming their initial assumption. Here, we sought to investigate whether experienced emotional states and psychophysiological parameters measured when following a (simulated) CSA interview would be associated with confirmation bias in subsequent question formulation. Psychology students (N = 60, Mage = 22.75) followed a (simulated) CSA interview while their facially expressed emotions (anger, sadness, disgust, surprize and relief), galvanic skin response, heart rate (HR), and HR variability (HRV) were registered. The interview was then interrupted, and the participants were asked to formulate additional questions they would ask of the interviewee. As predicted, we found that participants who got more (vs. less) disgusted by the interview asked more questions biased towards confirming CSA. Against our expectations, participants who got more (vs. less) surprized also asked more questions biased towards confirming CSA. We also found, as predicted, that lower HRV was associated with more abuse confirming questions. Results suggest that emotions and psychophysiological states participants experience when observing a CSA interview are associated with confirmation bias in how questions are formulated.