Jury Decision making

Question 1

Jury

Answer 1

12 jurors

Question 2

3 Factors that affect jury decision making

Answer 2

Attractiveness

Race

Accent

Question 3

Attractiveness

Answer 3

Halo Effect - Cognitive bias where we give positive attributes to those we find attractive

Abwender & Hough
investigated the attractiveness leniency hypothesis (ALH)
Created a scenario where a drunk driver killed a pedestrian, found that females gave more leniency to attractive females, males were the OPPOSITE

Question 4

Race

Answer 4

Often negative bias from white jurors to black defendants (in mock trials) - harsher sentences

Bradbury & Williams (2013)
Black defendants less likely to be found guilty from a jury consisting of a higher percentage of black jurors, more likely to be found guilty with higher amount of whites and Hispanics

Pfiefer & Ogloff
Found that after reading trial transcripts, white jurors were more likely to rate the guild of a black defendant higher, especially if the victim was white

Question 5

Accent

Answer 5

Dixon & Mahoney (1997)
Found those with a Brummie accent were considered more guilty. Black & Brummie seen more guilty than White & Brummy. All ppts. were white non-birmingham students

Question 6

Evaluation of Characteristics Affecting Jury Decision Making

Answer 6

Experience of a juror isn’t easily replicated in a lab, thus difficult to establish Cause & Effect

Question 7

3 Factors Affecting the Deliberation Room

Answer 7

Conformity - Asch

Minority Influence - Moscovicci

Competence - Foster Lee/Loftus

Question 8

Majority Influence

Answer 8

Asch -The majority will influence the decision, many people will agree with the majority, even if they do not believe it.
e.g. If the majority suggest the person is innocent, the rest are likely to agree

Question 9

Minority Influence

Answer 9

Moscivicci (1969) - Consistent minority was more impactful than an inconsistent minority on changing the opinion of the majority. In the court room, if a minority opinion is displaying factual unbiased information then it is more likely to sway majority opinion

e.g. suffragettes

Question 10

Competence and Instruction

Answer 10

Jury is expected to listen to technical info. that may be far outside their knowledge base.

Foster Lee found that giving instructions to jurors before technical info. is more effective than giving it afterwards

Severance & Loftus (1982) found that key concepts explained to the jury such as ‘reasonable doubt’ improved understanding of legal concepts. Found that some even after explanation didn’t fully understand.

Question 11

Pre-Trial Publicity APFC

Answer 11

Steblay (1999) did meta-analysis of past research and found pre-trial publicity can negatively affect jurors judgement on defendant’s guilt

A - To see effect of pre-trial publicity

P - 44 studies in mock trials, Negative info. given to experimental group, control group received no info.

F - Negative pre-trial publicity more likely to give guilty verdict (59%) vs control group (45%). Long time between publicity and decision & Murder or sexual abuse increased likelihood of guilty decision.

C - PTP increases likelihood of guilty verdict. Explanation is because of schemas created that are difficult to shift, suggest conducting trial in foreign countries where there is less publicity

Question 12

Factors Affecting Jury Decision Making Soda

Answer 12

S - Ethical. Mock trials allow experimenters to alter variables that could not be done ethically in real life. Thus, extra-legal factors can be observed without prejudicing the outcome of real trials

O - Other untested factors could influence jury decision making, many of which vary individually. E.g. similarity of characteristics of juror and defendant could increase empathy, charismatic leaders of the jury or personal experience of the event that could lead to biases.

D - Results are often inconsistent. Abwender and Hough found females more likely to be lenient to attract female and opposite for men, but Patry (2008) found mock jurors who discussed the case more likely to find attractive defendant guilty, less likely to when not discussing. Inconsistency makes conclusions difficult

A - Jurors should be reminded to remain impartial and have reasonable doubt explained to them. In Pfeifer & Ogloff explanation of reasonable doubt removed racial bias. This knowledge of juror bias may reduce miscarriages of justice in the future