psychology : bias in the courtroom - background info

2 types of juries

• shadow jury

• mock jury

shadow jury defintion

• sits in a public gallery during trial then discuss it as if they were the actual jury

mock jury definition

watches video / reads transcripts of court case then reach a verdict

how does attractiveness influence juries

• halo effect

• implicit personality theory

• stewart

• castellow

• sigall and ostrove

halo effect definition

suggests a positive halo of pleasant characteristics is imagined when one favourable characteristic is known

implicit personality theory

suggests that we stereotype physical attractiveness with attractive personalities

stewart’s theory

• investigated the impact of appearance on jury decisions by observing real trails in the public gallery

• found that less attractive the defendant was, the more severe their punishment was

castellow’s study

• experiment to test attribution of guilt using previously rated attractive / unattractive witnesses and defendants

• found that attractive defendants were more likely to be found not guilty if the victim was unattractive

• also found that unattractive defendants were more likely to be found guilty if the victim was attractive

sigall and ostrove’s study

• asked 120 ppts to suggest a sentence for burglary or fraud, either with or without see a photo of the defendant

• photos were either an attractive or unattractive defendant

• results showed that ppts suggested significantly longer sentences for burglary when the photo was of an unattractive person

• but found reverse effects when the crime was fraud

• in this condition, the photo of the unattractive defendant produced the longer sentence

how does race influence juries

• pfeifer and ogloff

• eberhardt

pferifer and ogloff’s study

• showed that white uni students rated black defendants as more guilty than white defendants

• effect was found to be even stronger when the victim was described as white

eberhardt’s study

• effect of the race if a defendant and the likelihood that they would receive the death penalty if found guilty of murder

• found that men who were seen as more stereotypically black were significantly more likely to receive the death penalty

lakoff’s - how does the way language is used affect juries

• effect of using frequent ‘hedges’ while talking such as ‘I think’ or ‘perhaps’

• both male and female witnesses who used thus type of language were perceived as less intelligent, less competent, less likeable and less believable than those who did not

how does accent affect juries

• seggie

• kalin

seggie’s study

• conducted research in Australia

• investigated the effects on raters perception of guilt of 3 accents : british rp, broad australian and asian

• found that more guilt was attributed to australian accent when suspect was accused of assault

• found that more guilt was attributed to british rp accent when suspect accused of theft

kalin’s study

• found that standard british accent was rated more positively than non standard e.g. regional