“Eye contact, but not too much… don’t stare into my soul”. Understanding interviewee beliefs around rapport experiences and behaviours.

Objective: Building and maintaining rapport have been identified as important elements of investigative interviewing practice. However, there has been little qualitative research about how interviewees understand the concept of rapport and their views on what behaviours might indicate good or bad rapport building. Method: 23 participants took part in one of five focus groups which discussed three topics i) individuals’ perceptions of rapport building in everyday life ii) behaviours they felt would aid or hinder rapport building and iii) what behaviours they would consider effective in rapport building with a police officer during an investigative interview.Results and Discussion: In a thematic analysis of the discussion, four main themes were identified: Trust and Respect, Responsive Interviewing, Relationships, and Contextual Relevance. A content analysis of specific rapport-affecting behaviours identified body posture, relaxing the witness and eye contact to be the most frequent behaviours mentioned as rapport enhancing. Being dismissive, rude, and using intense eye contact were found to be the most frequent behaviours discussed to hinder rapport building. Overall, rapport was described as dependent on situation, person and environment, and enhancing rapport requires contextual awareness.