Criminal- Mahoney & Dixon

Question 1

attractiveness and juries

Answer 1

• Stewart= 60 trials, rate defendants= more ugly means more severe the punishment
• Sigall & Ostrove= pretty or ugly photos, pass a sentence for burglary or fraud. higher sentence for burglary if ugly, higher sentence for fraud if pretty

Question 2

race and juries

Answer 2

• Pfeiffer & Ogloff and O.J. SImpson case
• black people are more guilty
• even more so if the victim was white
• if black person killed a white victim then they are more likely to receive the death penalty more than W killer killing B victim

Question 3

O. J. SImpson trial

Answer 3

• accused of killing his wife and her friend.
• found not guilty for both counts
• blacks thought of it as police misconduct and racism
• whites saw him as guilty

Question 4

language and juries

Answer 4

• doubtful language =
  1. less smart
  2. less believable
  3. less competent

Question 5

accent and juries

Answer 5

• Seggie
• pleads of innocence
• assault = Aussie
• theft = Brummie
• brumme accent more negative than RP

Question 6

applications

Answer 6

inadmissible evidence (evidence that cant be given to a jury for a variety of reasons)

• lawyers know its wrong, but do anyway. it helps win cases
• groups listened to an audio tape mock trial where critical evidence was introduced ‘accidentally’ by a witness, this was objected to and the judge ruled it inadmissible and should not listen to it. G1= given a legal explanation of why the evidence was inadmissible and G2 just told to disregard the information with no explanation. Participants were then told to decide on a verdict.
• no legal explanation to why the evidence was inadmissible were able to ignore it and found the defendant guilty whereas those that were given a legal explanation where unable to ignore it and found the defendant not guilty.
• Calling attention to inadmissible evidence makes it more important to the jury and they pay more attention.

Question 7

aim

Answer 7

is the brummie accent more guilty than RP

Question 8

sample

Answer 8

worcester uni students
119 undergrad
students from Birmingham excluded

Question 9

design

Answer 9

IV- brummie/ RP, race/ cheque fraud/ armed robbery

DV- guilt

Question 10

method

Answer 10

1. 2 min recorded transcript
2. police officer and young suspect
3. guise spoke 2 accents
4. race manipulated via contextual cues
5. innocence rated on a scale.
   - superiority
   - attractiveness
   - dynamism

Question 11

results

Answer 11

brummie suspect= rated lower superiority and more guilt. black brummie cheque fraud more guilty

Question 12

conclusions

Answer 12

social factors influecning perception include

1. crime type
2. accent
3. race

Question 13

bouba- kiki effect

Answer 13

bouba = blob
kiki = spiky 

shows we infer things from the environment