©2013 McGraw-Hill Companies Social Psychology David Myers 11e ©2013 McGraw-Hill Companies

Chapter Fifteen Social Psychology in Court

How Reliable Is Eyewitness Testimony? The Power of Persuasive Eyewitnesses In cases with no eyewitness testimony the conviction rate is only 18 percent; with eyewitness testimony the rate skyrockets to 72 percent Discrediting the eyewitness may reduce the number of guilty votes

How Reliable Is Eyewitness Testimony? When Eyes Deceive Strong emotions and traumas may corrupt eyewitness memories

How Reliable Is Eyewitness Testimony? The Misinformation Effect Incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of the event after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it Retelling Pleasing audience Plaintiff Defendant Tone of voice Choice of words

How Reliable Is Eyewitness Testimony? Reducing Error Train police interviewers Minimize false lineup identifications Control group Scripted and neutral questions Educate jurors about pitfalls of eyewitness testimony

What Other Factors Influence Juror Judgments? The Defendant’s Characteristics Physical attractiveness Similarity to the jurors Jurors do exhibit some tendency to treat racial outgroups less favorably

What Other Factors Influence Juror Judgments? The Judge’s Instructions Ignoring inadmissible evidence Reactance Motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom Arises when someone threatens our freedom of action

What Other Factors Influence Juror Judgments? Additional Factors Severity of the potential sentence Characteristics of the victim

What Influences the Individual Juror? Juror Comprehension Understanding instructions Many people don’t understand legalese Understanding statistical information Blood type DNA

What Influences the Individual Juror? Juror Comprehension Increasing jurors’ understanding Give jurors access to transcripts instead of relying on memories Have more effective ways to present information Tell jurors about punishments in a simpler way

What Influences the Individual Juror? Jury Selection Scientific jury selection “Death-Qualified” Jurors Argued that it produces a biased jury More prone to favor the prosecution More concerned with crime control

How Do Group Influences Affect Juries? Minority Influence Jurors in the minority will be most persuasive when consistent, persistent, and self-confident Group Polarization Deliberation may make initial leanings stronger Leniency When the majority does not prevail, it usually shifts to acquittal

How Do Group Influences Affect Juries? Are Twelve Heads Better Than One? Groups recall information from a trial better than do their individual members Deliberation tends to cancel out certain biases Greater chance of diversity Are Six Heads as Good as Twelve? Lesser chance of diversity There are recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions permitting smaller juries and nonunanimous juries

How Do Group Influences Affect Juries? From Lab to Life: Simulated and Real Juries Not real juries, so caution must be used in generalizing research findings to actual courtrooms