Differential Bias and Suggestiveness: Cognitive Patterns and Emotional Reactivity as Predictors of Bias and Suggestion in Child Sexual Abuse Investigations

Abstract

This thesis examines how cognitive and emotional individual differences predispose biased mindsets and suggestiveness in formal and informal questioning of children about child sexual abuse (CSA) suspicions. Across five empirical studies, presented in three articles, the Cognitions and Emotions about Child Sexual Abuse (CECSA) scales were developed, validated, and tested for their relationship to biased judgments and suggestive questioning, and for their responsiveness to training. Article 1 outlines the development and initial validation of three CECSA scales – Naive Confidence (NC), Emotional Reactivity (ER), and Justice System Distrust (JSD) – in a sample of 801 human sciences students. The scales demonstrated good model fit, acceptable to good reliability and, importantly, predicted participants’ bias toward the abuse hypothesis when judging vague CSA suspicions. Article 2 presents three mock case studies for predicting bias and suggestive questioning using varying formats for question posing: a single-choice format, a free-writing format, and a natural language format in a virtual reality (VR) simulation. Results for a total of 674 students from diverse disciplines (human sciences, teaching, police studies) showed that NC and ER, but not JSD, robustly predicted biased mindsets and a suggestive questioning style across the three studies and a meta-analytic integration. Article 3 evaluates a training program aimed at improving questioning techniques and related constructs. A secondary analysis of the data showed that a two-day seminar-style training significantly reduced NC and ER scores, while the results for JSD were inconclusive. These findings establish the CECSA scales NC and ER as reliable predictors of bias and a suggestive questioning style and show that both are modifiable through training. The scales are of diagnostic and evaluative value for training development or personnel selection, and can be used and extended to further investigate differential aspects of child sexual abuse investigations.