Active Listening: Ending the Illusion of Communication

The single greatest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place.

- George Bernard Shaw

When I read this quote this morning, it immediately struck me how vital active listening skills are in investigative interviews. How often have we said something, only to realize later that the person we were speaking to heard something different? Conversely, how often have we heard something, only to find that the speaker said something different? Perhaps even more than spoken communication, written communications, such as emails and text messages, which lack the elements of tone and nonverbal cues, can easily be misinterpreted. These miscommunications can embarrass us in social contexts, but the consequences can be severe in investigative interviews.

Investigator using active listening

Consider, for example, what could happen if we believe a victim identified the suspect in a crime, only to discover later that we misheard and that he identified someone else. Depending on how long the mistake goes uncorrected, the consequences could range from lost time and resources to the arrest of an innocent person. In a strangulation case, a victim might say she couldn’t breathe, but we might miss the last subtle syllable and instead hear that she could breathe. Or, a witness might have seen the suspect go left, but we understood him to say he went west. Usually, these things self-correct, but what happens when they don’t, or when the correction takes long enough that damage is done in the meantime?

The good news is that most miscommunications can be avoided by developing the habit of active listening. One principle of active listening is to clear your mind to focus on what is being said. Could it be possible that, if we are locked in on a particular suspect in our minds, we might fail to hear information in an interview that could exonerate that suspect? It is possible, and it does happen. We should always guard against confirmation bias, and active listening is one effective method of doing so. Before we walk into an interview, taking a moment to commit to collecting clean data, untainted by our preconceptions, will help prevent harmful miscommunication.

Active Listening Skills

Emotional labeling, reflecting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are all fundamental active listening skills that can be practiced and integrated into our communication style, and they all prevent miscommunication by inviting the speaker to correct us, the listener, if we got something wrong. For example, if we use an emotional label and say, “It sounds like you were furious,” that allows the speaker to respond, “Furious? No, I was frustrated, but it wasn’t that serious.” Or, they could confirm our label by saying, “Heck yeah, I was furious!” The same correction or confirmation can occur with reflections, paraphrases, and summaries.

I always advise investigators in my classes to set egos aside, welcome corrections, and reinforce them by thanking the subject and encouraging more. Corrections achieve several objectives in an interview. For one, a subject who corrects you has now stated something twice, thereby solidifying their statement. Someone who claimed they misspoke when they said something once and then reiterated it during a correction would not be credible. Let’s walk through an example: a burglary suspect tells you they never lend their phone to anyone. When you summarize his statement and make a mistake by saying the phone belongs to him and his girlfriend, he corrects you by saying, “No, my girlfriend pays for it, but I’m the only one who ever uses it.” The suspect is stuck with his statements that no one carries his phone but him, thus linking him to the GPS data or other evidence you might obtain from it. In this way, active listening removes miscommunication and is crucial to interview strategies like the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE).

Of the myriad benefits of active listening techniques, preventing miscommunication is likely one of the most important. Information gained from investigative interviews is unhelpful if it is inaccurate or unclear. Train diligently in active listening skills until they become ingrained in your communication style. It will serve you well.