Your Words Matter: The Effect of Lexical Entrainment on Abused Children’s Testimonies

Background: Dialog is the most common way to communicate. Research in the field of Lexical Entrainment (LE) shows that speakers in dialogs tend to adapt each other’s terms, which leads to empathy, cooperation, and task success. Objective: This study investigates the application of LE within the novel context of forensic investigations of sexually abused children. It explores whether LE is associated with both the richness of the child’s testimony and perceived credibility. Participants and Setting: In two studies, we analyzed transcripts from 218 forensic investigations involving children aged 4 to 14. Methods: Utilizing the NICHD protocol, transcripts were coded to calculate both the number of forensic details and the questions type. LE levels between child and investigator were calculated based on lemmas' frequency. Results: 1) We found that higher LE levels are related to more forensic details, and this was replicated across two datasets, 2) Whereas no association was originally found between perceived credibility assessment and LE, we found a marginal positive correlation when considering the child's and the investigator's gender. Conclusion: These findings expand our understanding of LE in dialogs in the "real world" and can be incorporated into investigator training and protocols. In addition, these findings raise new questions about the influence of gender alignment between the investigator and the child, which should be taken into account in further research.