The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Kendall Jackson will present Master’s research titled, SUSPICIOUS OR AUTISTIC? EVALUATING RESPONSES TO A BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS INTERVIEW on 06/21/2023 at 2pm in Zoom https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/93191470840. Everyone is invited to attend.
Psychology
Chair: Amye Warren
Co-Chair:
Abstract:
The Behavioral Analysis Interview (BAI) of the Reid Interrogation technique (Inbau, et al., 2013) is a set of 15 behavior provoking questions designed to elicit cues of deception or truth. Research has found that these cues are unreliable, based on common stereotypes of lying, and that officers trained in BAI are no better than chance accuracy in detecting deception (Global Deception, 2006; Kassin, Meissner & Norwick, 2005; Meissner & Kassin, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of two innocent autistic individuals’ responses to the BAI, as characteristics of autism overlap with BAI criteria for deception. College psychology students (n=218) were presented with the case background describing a crime and a suspect, along with a transcript of one of the two autistic individual’s responses to the 15 question BAI, and then rated the truthfulness/deceptiveness of the responses. Half the participants were told in advance that the suspect was autistic. Overall, both sets of responses were rated as significantly more deceptive when the suspect was not identified as autistic. The set of responses containing more stereotypical BAI deception cues (e.g., lack of eye contact, long pauses) was judged as significantly more deceptive than the other, and the difference was greater when participants were not told of the autism diagnosis. Lastly, participants with greater knowledge or experience with autism rated the suspects as less deceptive when told of the diagnosis. This research has implications for officers to adjust their criteria for interviewing to lessen likelihood of misinterpreting innocent responses of individuals on the autism spectrum.