Confirmation bias is predictable—but not unavoidable. Left unchecked, it distorts interviews, weakens investigations, and jeopardizes outcomes. Science-Based Interviewing (SBI) offers a practical path forward by using red teaming to challenge assumptions, test hypotheses, and counter confirmation bias and other cognitive errors. Through structured critical thinking, SBI strengthens objectivity, protects case integrity, and supports ethical, evidence-driven decision-making.

Red Teaming is critical thinking on purpose. It deliberately challenges assumptions, confidence, and early conclusions to strengthen investigations before decisions harden. While this may feel counterintuitive, it helps investigators check themselves and reduce bias before interviews, evidence interpretation, and case direction are shaped. When paired with science-based interviewing, Red Teaming improves information gathering, decision quality, and investigative integrity.

Investigative interviewing today stands at a crossroads, split between two fundamentally different approaches: information-gathering and...

Open-ended questions are foundational to science-based interviewing because they elicit free narratives that reveal unknown unknowns—information investigators could not anticipate or know to ask about in advance. These narratives allow investigators to be surprised, opening new lines of inquiry, better follow-up questions, and more case-relevant data than closed or leading questions ever produce.