An evidence-based approach to promoting honesty in child witnesses

The proposed project will investigate the honesty promoting method used by police officers in the UK
during investigative interviews with children, as well as explore additional evidence-based honestypromoting
methods used in other countries. First, this project will explore the methods used by police
officers in the UK that aim at increasing the honesty in child witnesses during investigative interviews. A
field study will help get a better understanding of such methods. Currently, guidelines recommend the
police in the UK to use truth and lies discussions (TLDs) to promote honesty in child witnesses. However,
this method is not supported by research. Therefore, this project will investigate whether TLDs are
effective at promoting honesty in child witnesses. In addition, other honesty-promoting methods that
have been shown to be effective at promoting honesty in child witnesses in other countries (e.g.,
Canada) will be explored with a UK sample. Such methods include classical moral story-telling and social
modelling. To extend on past research, this project will manipulate different transgressions,
consequences, and events. In addition, the role of time delays on these honesty-promoting methods will
be explored for the first time in this line of research.