psychology : bias in the courtroom - key study dixon

aim

to investigate the effect of accent, race and type of crime on assumptions of guilt

research method and design

• lab experiment

• independent measures

variables

• iv : accent

• iv 2 : race

• iv 3 : type of crime

• dv : rating of guilt

• controls : using same actor and scripts

sample

• 119 white undergrad psych students from the uni of Worcester

• 24 males

• 95 females

• average age of 25

procedure

• ppts listened to a 2 minute transcript of a conversation between a police officer and a suspect

• suspect spoke with either a Brummie accent or a standard English accent

• suspect was accused of either armed robbery (blue collar crime) or cheque fraud (white collar crime)

• suspect was described by the officer as either black or white

• ppts then rated guilt on a 7 point scale (innocent to guilty)

findings

• brummie accent meant a higher rating of guilt

• the brummie, black, armed robber was rated as the most guilty overall

conclusions

• supports previous research done by seggie

• accent does affect rating of guilt which implies that in a courtroom juries can be biased

• but ‘attributions of guilt are generally made in a far richer evidential context than was provided … likely that strength of evidence will moderate any effect of accent on legal decision making’

• in summary in a real courtroom there is more evidence and it is unlikely that accent plays a big part

validity

• low ecological as not a real case and not real police officers or suspects

• high internal as did test what it set out to test

reliability

• high internal as standardised procedures used

• low external as if you repeated the experiment with a more diverse sample you might not get the same results

sample and generalisation

• relatively large sample of students

• most likely from different areas

• but would all be familiar with brummie accents

• also all the same race

research method

• lab experiment which means it was conducted in a controlled environment with standardised procedures

• independent measures used so no order effects

practical applications

• could be used in court systems to advise that accent and race could bias a jury

type of data

• quantitative - guilt ratings on the 7 point scale

• makes it easy to analyse and compare the different findings

freewill / determinism

• deterministic as rating of guilt by ppts was determined by accent, race and type of crime

ethics

• ethical

• ppts gave informed consent, had the right to withdraw, weren’t deceived

reductionism / holism

• reductionist as only looks at certain factors as a reason for how guilty someone is rated

socially sensitive research

• is socially sensitive

• could create stereotypes about race and accents e.g. that those with brummie accents are more violent / more likely to be guilty

situational / individual

• situational

• the guilt rating was impacted by the race, accent and type of crime committed

psych as a science

• lab experiment using standardised procedures

• so is scientific