How Individual Differences in Psychosocial Factors Affect Interrogative Suggestibility and False Memory

Abstract

This study sought to supplement existing literature on interrogative suggestibility by examining both immediate suggestibility and subsequent false memory and including psychosocial factors that have not previously been studied with adults in this context. It was hypothesized (1) that there would be a significant positive relationship between immediate suggestibility and subsequent false memory, and (2) that psychosocial factors such as anxiety symptoms, daily hassles, dissociative experiences, and compliance, would moderate that relationship. A sample of 53 undergraduate participants attended sessions in computer classrooms and completed the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS). One week later, participants returned and completed a delayed free recall, the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS), the Daily Hassles Scale, a revised version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-R), and the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS). A Pearson’s Product Moment correlation found that interrogative suggestibility and subsequent false memory had a positive relationship (r = .37, p < .01). Furthermore, regression analyses found that both the frequency of hassles (β = -.003, p < .01) and the intensity of hassles (β = -.27, p < .01) moderated the relationship between total suggestibility and false memory. Additionally, panic symptoms moderated the relationship between suggestibility and false memory (β = -.08, p < .05). The results of this study have implications in forensic settings such as police interrogations and eyewitness testimony.