At times the goal of an interview is designed to elicit some change in the interviewee’s behavior or opinions. These persuasive interviews can involve questions aimed at securing support for or against a particular candidate (political), convincing others to give blood during a campus campaign (volunteer), or requesting money for an organization or cause (philanthropical).

One type of persuasive interview is the problem-solving interview, which attempts to persuade participants to deal with problems, tensions, or conflicts. If you’ve ever seen an episode of A&E’s Beyond Scared Straight, you’ve seen this type of interview in action. In this show at-risk teen offenders are exposed to criminals in prison in an attempt to dissuade them from criminal activity. The teens are asked questions, given information, and helped with formulating a plan or solution to curb their at-risk behaviors.

Problem-solving interviews can also occur in the workplace (such as you and your supervisor meeting to figure out how you can most effectively work from home during snow days) and even in medical situations. Your doctor, for example, may interview you about difficulties in your life that may affect your physical well-being; before your appointment, you should prepare problem-solving questions that will help both you and the doctor to better assess your health (Dwamena, Mavis, Holmes-Rovner, Walsh, & Loyson, 2009) and you should be ready to volunteer information that may help solve the problem (Coulehan & Block, 2006).

Another type of persuasive interview is the motivational interview, which elicits change collaboratively. Here interviewers use goal-oriented questioning that’s designed to inspire and strengthen personal motivation (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). Showing acceptance and compassion, interviewers can help interviewees become more confident in their ability to make behavioral changes, for example, to lose weight (Wong & Cheng, 2013), deal with pain (Tse, Vong, & Tang, 2013), avoid high-risk drinking and illicit drug use (Kazemi, Levine, Dmochowski, Nies, & Sun, 2013), or quit smoking (Myhre & Adelman, 2013).