Cognitive Interviews  

Compliance Perspective Podcast — Michael Johnson, Chief Strategy Officer at Traliant, explains why closed-end questions are often unproductive, and how questioning the target of an investigative with the goal of securing a confession can be dangerous since it may yield a false confession and, potentially, a lawsuit.  

Instead, he suggests taking a cognitive approach.

“Establish rapport and help get the person talking by asking about their background and responsibilities. Minimize the use of close-ended questions, asking, instead, open-ended questions which invite them to tell a story about what happened. If there are blanks or confusing parts, go back and ask more specific questions.”  — Michael Johnson, Chief Strategy Officer at Traliant 

Johnson adds another effective technique is to ask the target to tell the story in reverse order. It’s much more difficult for the person to do so if a person is lying. 

Click here to listen to the full podcast.