Psychology and the Courtroom Flashcards
What is the Halo Effect ?
-Physically attractive people are assumed to have other attractive properties
What were Sigall and Ostrove (1975) main aims ?
- Whether attractiveness affected jury decision-making
- Whether there was a relationship between attractiveness and the type of crime committed.
What was the method of Sigall and Ostrove’s study ?
- Looked at burglary and fraud
- 120 participants given a card with a picture of a woman with a crime on it
- 6 different groups- either given attractive or unattractive Barbara or burglary and fraud- some no picture
- Asked to rate how attractive she is to agree she is attractive
- Told to give sentence of 1-5 year
What were the results of Sigall and Ostrove’s study ?
- Similar length sentence awarded for both crimes with both photos
- Attractive Barbara spent longer for fraud and less for burglary
- This is because she would’ve used her looks to swindle
What was concluded from Sigall and Ostrove’s study ?
- Good looking people get away with some crimes
- If they used their looks to commit crime- less likely to get away with it
What did Dixon investigate ?
- Studied Birmingham accent as it had been negatively rated compared to other regional British accents
- Predicted suspect with Brummie accent would receive higher ratings of guilt than suspect with a standard accent
What were the Aims of Dixon’s study ?
- To test the hypothesis that a suspect with a Brummie accent would receive a higher rating of guilt than a suspect with a standard accent.
- Whether race or type of crime would make any difference to how the Brummie or standard speaking subject was judged
Who were the participants in Dixon’s study ?
- 119 white undergraduate students at the University of Worcester
- Participated as part of their course requirements.
- Those who had grown up in Birmingham were excluded- negative bias against the accent.
What was the Procedure of Dixon’s Study ?
- Listened to a 2 minute recording based on an interview that took place in a Birmingham police station in 1995.
- Suspect either had a Brummie accent or standard accent
- Was Black or white
- Had committed a blue collar or white collar crime
- These were manipulated into the interrogation
What were the results of Dixon’s Study ?
- Brummie accent rated higher on guilt.
- Black Brummie suspect in the blue collar condition receiving significantly higher guilt ratings than the other five conditions.
What was concluded from Dixon’s Study ?
- There are problems with external validity- in a real courtroom an accent isn’t enough to determine guilt
- Shows some accents may be seen as more guilty the others
Why is it hard to study Juries ?
- Jury negotiations must be anonymous and kept secret, forever.
- Cannot be studied in the real world.
- Causes issues with ecological validity in the research.
How can you influence a Jury ?
- Appearance- dress up
- Get an eyewitness, has a powerful effect on jury decision making
- Loftus- 72% found defendant guilty if there was an eyewitness to prove their guilt
