Interviewing asylum seekers: A vignette study on the questions asked to assess credibility of claims about origin and persecution

The aim of the current vignette study is to map the style, type, and themes of questions that are asked when assessing the credibility of asylum seekers' claims. Sixty‐five officials from the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket ), were asked to respond to one out of four different vignettes that contained fictitious asylum narratives. Each vignette presented the types of problems often encountered by officials at the migration board. Two of the vignettes contained no evidence of the origin of the asylum seeker. The other two contained no evidence for the claim of persecution. The asylum officials were asked to formulate five questions that would help them to assess the veracity of the applicant's claim. Our analyses showed that they mainly formulated open questions in an information gathering style. A thematic analysis of the questions revealed that when a claim about origin was assessed, asylum officials mostly asked questions about life in the country of origin, identity documents, and the flight to Europe. When the claim about persecution was assessed, in contrast, asylum officials mostly formulated case‐specific questions (e.g., how the applicant was arrested). Hence, when the credibility of claims about origin is assessed, there seems to be a typical set of questions that asylum officials use. The asylum officials seem to assume that if the applicant is truly originating from a specific country or area, he or she should have ample knowledge about that area, its customs, and frequently encountered objects.     

Does the Narrative Style of Video Evidence Influence Judgements About Rape Complainant Testimony?

Four studies investigated lawyers' concerns that the narrative style of police interviews with adult rape complainants reduces the impact of this interview as video evidence. Study 1 (N = 96) compared mock juror perceptions of simulated evidence‐in‐chief either in traditional short‐answer or narrative style and found testimony style was not a predictor of complainant credibility. Studies 2 (N = 104), 3 (N = 102) and 4 (N = 102) examined different variables that change with testimony style—the number of questions asked, overall testimony length and response length. The number of questions asked was the only predictor of complainant credibility; more questions resulted in higher credibility ratings. These findings suggest that lawyers' concerns about narrative style interviewing are unwarranted. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's event reports: Factors affecting responses to repeated questions in vignette scenarios and event recall interviews

When adults repeat questions, children often give inconsistent answers. This study aimed to test the claim that these inconsistencies occur because children infer that their first answer was unsatisfactory, and that the adult expects them to change their answer. Children aged 4, 6, and 8 years (N= 134) were asked about vignettes in which an adult repeated a question, with manipulation of the adult's overt dissatisfaction (high vs. low pressure) and knowledge about the information sought. On a separate occasion, the children were given an unrelated event recall interview containing repeated questions. All age groups showed sensitivity to adult dissatisfaction, interpreting question repetition as an implicit request for answer change more frequently in the high than in the low‐pressure vignettes. Overall, however, these ‘change‐expected’ interpretations were least frequent in the younger children, who were the most prone to shifting. Also there was no evidence that these interpretations were associated with more frequent shifting in the recall interview. The results do not provide clear support for a simple conversational inference account of shifting, especially in younger children.     

Dynamics in Using Different Question Types in Estonian Police Interviews of Children

The present study examined Estonian police officers' interviewing tactics with children in cases of physical and/or sexual abuse, as there are no published studies conducted in a country formally part of the Soviet Union. Also, the dynamics in using different question types within interviews was examined. Investigative interviews with 66 children (mean age 8 years 10 months, range 4 to 14 years) were transcribed and analyzed. Option‐posing and direct questions were most frequently employed, but invitations produced significantly more information. Four to seven‐year‐old children were asked more suggestive questions than older children. As interviews progressed, the average number of explanations and general invitations per interview decreased, whereas the number of suggestive and option‐posing questions increased. This study suggests that like police officers in other countries, Estonian investigators require training in structured interviewing methods to increase the number of invitations and reduce reliance upon option‐posing and direct questions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does ordinary injustice make extraordinary injustice possible? Gender,structural injustice,and the ethics of refugee determination

Our understanding of the impact of gender on refugee determination has evolved greatly over the last 60 years. Though many people initially believed that women could not be persecuted qua women, it is now frequently recognized that certain forms of gender-related persecution are sufficient to warrant asylum. Yet despite this conceptual progress, many states are still reluctant to consider certain forms of gender-related persecution to be sufficient to warrant asylum or refugee status. One reason for this continued bias is the lack of a framework with which to understand gender-related persecution. I argue that we ought to understand gender-related persecution as resulting from the intersection of individual or state persecution and structural injustice. Structural injustice can be understood as the kind of everyday injustice, harm, and violence that women experience that makes possible the more extraordinary kinds of violence that women are likely to claim as the basis of asylum. Understanding gender-related persecution within the context of structural injustice will, I argue, help us to see it as a legitimate form of persecution and thus allow more just outcomes for women refugees.     

Preschoolers Use Questions as a Tool to Acquire Knowledge From Different Sources

How do children use questions as tools to acquire new knowledge? The current experiment examined preschool children's ability to direct questions to appropriate sources to acquire knowledge. Fifty preschoolers engaged in a task that entailed asking questions to discover which special key would open a box that contained a prize. Children solved simple and complex problems by questioning two puppet experts who knew about separate features of each key. Results indicate dramatic developmental differences in the efficiency and efficacy of children's questions. Although even 3-year-olds asked questions, their questions were largely ineffective and directed toward inappropriate sources. Four-year-olds directed questions toward the appropriate sources but asked approximately equal numbers of effective and ineffective questions. Only 5-year-olds both asked the appropriate sources and formulated effective questions. Implications for the development of problem-solving abilities are discussed.     

‘I Can't Go Back Because If I Go Back I Would Die’: How Asylum Seekers Manage Talk about Returning Home by Highlighting the Importance of Safety

Asylum seekers living in the UK have been shown to have fled danger in their countries of origin, only to face hardship and the threat of deportation once there. This paper draws on the discursive psychological approach to address the way in which asylum seekers in the UK manage questions about returning to their country of origin. Interviews were conducted with nine asylum seekers in a refugee support centre in the Midlands. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis showed that participants drew on the notion of safety to counter suggestions that they should return to their country of origin and to manage their identity as legitimate asylum seekers in need of support. The use of this strategy and the use of interviews for discursive analysis are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The questions lay interviewers ask

Two studies were conducted to determine the kinds of questions people formulate for testing a hypothesis about another's personality. One group of subjects tested the hypothesis that the interviewee was an extrovert; another group tested the hypothesis that the interviewee was an introvert. Still another group was not provided with a hypothesis; instead, this group was asked to discriminate between an extroverted and an introverted interviewee. All subjects were free to formulate any kind of questions they wished. Analysis of the content of the questions performed by independent judges revealed that the great majority of the questions formulated by all of the groups either presented a choice between extroverted and introverted features or were open-ended. The percentage of questions about features that were consistent with the hypothesis was not significantly greater than the percentage of questions about features that were inconsistent with the hypothesis. Furthermore, in all of the groups there were virtually no biased questions–questions that already assume that the hypothesis is true. Finally, the questions asked by subjects who entertained either the extrovert hypothesis or the introvert hypothesis were as diagnostic (as rated by independent judges) as were the questions asked by subjects whose task was to discriminate between extroverts and introverts. The results were shown to be consistent with the diagnosing strategy but not with the confirmatory strategy of information-gathering.     

Children’s eyewitness memory: A comparison of two interviewing strategies as realized by forensic professionals

A critical issue for developmental psychology is how to obtain accurate and complete eyewitness memory reports from preschoolers without offering suggestions that might result in false allegations. We examined effects of two interviewing strategies (police/verbal interviews and clinician/prop-assisted interviews) on young children’s reports about a medical examination. A total of 58 4-year-olds participated in the study, which conformed to a 2 (Interview Type) × 2 (Number of Interviews) factorial design. Analyses revealed that interviewers spent less time off topic and asked more free recall questions in the police/verbal interviews than in the clinician/prop-assisted interviews. Compared with police/verbal interviews, clinician/prop-assisted interviews resulted in significantly more correct rejections and commission errors in children’s memory reports. However, on a final free recall test, error rates were comparable across conditions. Higher child verbal intelligence predicted memory accuracy in police/verbal interviews, and greater parental attachment anxiety predicted children being asked a higher number of misleading questions. The study provides new insights into interview techniques that promote preschoolers’ accurate eyewitness reports.     

A state of high anxiety: how non‐supportive interviewers can increase the suggestibility of child witnesses

The present study examined the effects of state and trait anxiety on 8–11 years old children's susceptibility to misleading post‐event information. Participants' state and trait anxiety were measured, after which they watched an extract from a children's movie. They were then individually interviewed using either a supportive or a non‐supportive style. During the interviews, the children were asked 14 questions about the movie, seven of which were control and seven contained misleading information. After the interview, their state anxiety was measured again. Results showed that participants interviewed in a non‐supportive style were more likely to provide incorrect answers to misleading questions. Furthermore, participants who scored highly on both trait and post‐interview state anxiety measures more often responded incorrectly to misleading questions. Also, pre‐to post‐interview changes in state anxiety were correlated with more incorrect responses to misleading questions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceptions about fleeing religious persecution and entrance to the US

Using four vignettes to study attitudes toward religious persecution, a woman or man aged 22 or 68 came to the US with no supporting documentation. A General Linear Model analysed the 12 items for each vignette. Three items were significant among the vignettes: “All immigration policies and laws should be observed even if it means that M may not be granted permission to stay”; “M’s gender might be an indicator that M wishes to do harm to the US and its citizens” and “M should be deported because s/he entered the country illegally.” Gender and age impact these perceptions.     

Asylum Seekers and Human Rights

Asylum seekers, by their very circumstances, test our common assumptions and practice in relation to human rights. The treatment of asylum seekers in many European countries has become harsher, more restrictive and less tolerant in recent years, raising questions about the violation of their rights. The article examines the bases of the rights that asylum seekers do have and whether these are best supported as human rights or more limited rights that attach to the place of their temporary residence and to obligations made by their country of temporary residence. Given the propensity of receiving countries to afford increasingly limited rights, the article identifies a limited set of rights that should take priority in a hierarchy of rights and which might claim widespread acceptance as those which asylum seekers must enjoy. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Children's and Mothers' Contribution to Joint Reminiscing in Different Sociocultural Contexts: Who Speaks and What is Said

The study compares mothers' conversation with their 4‐year‐old children about two past events in two autonomy‐oriented (35 German and 42 Swedish families), one relatedness‐oriented (22 Cameroonian Nso families) and one autonomy‐relatedness oriented (38 Estonian families) contexts. German mothers were rather similar to Swedish mothers in talking a lot, providing a lot of information and engaging children into conversation, but they differed from Swedish mothers by talking more about social content. Swedish children were more independent conversational partners to their mothers than other children, including German children. Estonian mothers' contribution to conversation was similar to Cameroonian Nso mothers, except that they asked a lot of open‐ended questions to engage children in conversations. Estonian children did not differ from Swedish and German children in their contribution to conversations. Compared to Swedish mothers, past event talk of Estonian mothers was characterized by a bigger proportion of talk devoted to social content, but also to the child, mental states and non‐social content. It was characteristic of Cameroonian Nso mothers that they focused more on other people and actions, and their conversational dominance was larger. Differences in reminiscing were consistent with different cultural models of self and the type of autonomy – psychological or action – promoted. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Idiosyncratic effects of interviewer behavior on the accuracy of children's responses

Children are interviewed to provide information about past events in various contexts (e.g., police interviews, court proceedings, therapeutic interviews). During an interview, various factors may influence the accuracy of children's responses to questions about recent events. However, behavioral research in this area is limited. Sparling et al. (2011) showed that children frequently provided inaccurate responses to questions about video clips they just watched depending on the antecedents (i.e., the way a question was asked) and consequences (i.e., the response of the interviewer to their answers). In the current study, we replicated and extended the procedures reported by Sparling et al. and found that two of five children were sensitive to the various antecedents and consequences that we manipulated. Our findings indicate a need for more research in this area to determine the relevant environmental variables that affect children's response accuracy.     

Weapon Bias: Split-Second Decisions and Unintended Stereotyping

ABSTRACT— Race stereotypes can lead people to claim to see a weapon where there is none. Split-second decisions magnify the bias by limiting people's ability to control responses. Such a bias could have important consequences for decision making by police officers and other authorities interacting with racial minorities. The bias requires no intentional racial animus, occurring even for those who are actively trying to avoid it. This research thus raises difficult questions about intent and responsibility for racially biased errors.     

Assessing normative approaches to communicating violence risk: a national survey of psychologists

There is growing attention to the importance of violence risk communication, and emerging empirical evidence of how evaluating clinicians who conduct risk assessments communicate their conclusions about the risk of violence toward others. The present study addressed the perceived value of different forms of risk communication through a national survey of practicing psychologists (N = 1,000). Responses were received from a total of 256 participants, who responded to eight vignettes in which three factors relevant to risk communication were systematically varied in a 2 x 2 x 2 within-subjects design, counterbalanced for order: (i) risk model (prediction oriented versus management oriented), (ii) risk level (high risk versus low risk), and (iii) risk factors (static versus dynamic). Participants were asked to rate the value of six styles of risk communication for each of eight vignettes. The most highly valued style of risk communication involved identifying risk factors applicable to the individual, and specifying interventions to reduce risk. These results were consistent with findings from several previous studies in this area, and reflect an emerging trend in preferences for style and context of risk communication of violence.     

Confidence judgments in event recall: developmental progression in the impact of question format

Two studies were conducted to examine developmental progression in children's and adults' ability to adequately monitor their own attempts to recall event details as well as the dependence of such metamemorial competencies on question formats. Eight and 10-year-old children as well as adults (Study 1, N=116; Study 2, N=60) rated their confidence when responding to specific questions about an observed event. Confirming most recent results, children and adults gave higher confidence ratings after correct than after incorrect answers. This ability, however, was limited to an unbiased question format. When being asked misleading questions, children's ability to differentiate was undermined, as reflected in equally high confidence judgments after correct and incorrect answers, even when the interview contained a mix of misleading and unbiased questions. When the interviewer "bombarded" the children with an uninterrupted series of misleading questions, children's difficulties appeared to be even more pronounced. These findings highlight the importance of the way in which questions are asked, and point to age-related progression in the relative impact of questioning style.     

L'idée de la logique formelle dans les appendices VI à X du volume 12 des Husserliana (1970)

Gödel always claimed that he did not know Skolem's Helsinki lecture when writing his dissertation. Some questions and doubts have been raised about this claim, in particular on the basis of a library slip showing that he had requested Skolem's paper in 1928. It is shown that this library slip does not constitute evidence against Gödel's claim, and that, on the contrary, the library slip and other archive material actually corroborate what Gödel said.