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The relationship between suggestibility and anxiety among suspects detained at police stations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

G. H. Gudjonsson ,
S. C. Rutter  and
I. C. H. Clare
G. H. Gudjonsson*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London
S. C. Rutter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London
I. C. H. Clare
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Gisli H. Gudjonsson, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.
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Synopsis

The present study investigated the relationship between anxiety, as measured by the State-Trait Inventory (Spielberger, 1983) and interrogative suggestibility, as measured by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS 2, Gudjonsson, 1987). One hundred and sixty-one suspects detained at two English police stations for questioning were assessed prior to being interviewed by the police. Unexpectedly, trait anxiety correlated more consistently with suggestibility than did state anxiety. The correlations were consistently higher among the Caucasian than the Afro-Caribbean subjects and the Afro-Caribbean subjects were significantly more suggestible than the Caucasian subjects even after their GSS 2 memory and IQ scores had been controlled for. The main practical implications of the findings are that interrogative suggestibility cannot be easily evaluated from the person's self-reported anxiety and the situation in which people are assessed may influence the relationship between these psychological variables.

Type
Brief Communications
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , July 1995 , pp. 875 - 878
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

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