310 posts · 194,525 views
Social science research, current events & jury news all viewed through the lens of litigation advocacy with an emphasis on persuasion, bias, communication, and all phases of case preparation.
Rita Handrich
3 posts
Doug Keene
154 posts
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- January 27, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 9,496 views
Pretrial publicity & bias: Take a look at the age of your jurors!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Despite the Supreme Court ruling [Skilling v US] that pretrial publicity [PTP] does not bias the public perception and limit the right to a fair trial, most of us who have experienced the impact of pretrial publicity disagree. It is an accepted truism that older people are more conservative than younger people. So it’s interesting to [...]
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Ruva, C., & Hudak, E. (2011) Pretrial publicity and juror age affect mock-juror decision making. Psychology, Crime , 1-24. DOI: 10.1080/1068316X.2011.616509
- December 14, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 3,557 views
When you wear glasses you are less attractive but more smart and trustworthy
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Remember our posts on “the nerd defense”? Essentially, what they said was that wearing glasses resulted in more ‘not guilty’ verdicts for criminal defendants. Of course, the ‘real’ research did not really say that at all. It was more a creation of the popular media (to the chagrin of the researcher involved!). Now, however, we have [...]
Related posts:“The glasses create a kind of unspoken nerd defense.”
Beards and glasses: More ‘small stuff’ you might want to sweat
The “Nerd Defense”: Redux
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Leder, H., Forster, M., & Gerger, G. (2011) The glasses stereotype revisited: Effects of eyeglasses on perception, recognition, and impression of faces. Swiss Journal of Psychology., 70(4). info:/
- December 16, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 3,164 views
Was Sonia Sotomayor right about female judges?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
One of our early posts on this blog was a response to the furor over the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Essentially, Sotomayor said that our decisions are a complex product of information and our life experiences. We believe this too and were taken aback that so much negative press resulted from her [...]
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A long tall Texan (and an auto repair shop tale)
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Choi, S., Gulati, M., Holman, M., & Posner, E. (2011) Judging women. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies,, 8(3). info:/
- December 12, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 3,067 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: On getting older and wiser!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Growing older is not for sissies. ‘Some people’ have ‘senior moments’ and then tend to mock ourselves while we secretly worry that it signals the onset of dementia. Many trial lawyers avoid the older juror due to concerns about sleepiness, inability to track the evidence, or simply being checked out during the trial. It isn’t any [...]
Related posts:Simple Jury Persuasion: When to talk about racial bias and when to stay quiet
Simple Jury Persuasion: Got charisma?
Simple Jury Persuasion: Beware what the other side will tell you…
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Worthy DA, Gorlick MA, Pacheco JL, Schnyer DM, & Maddox WT. (2011) With Age Comes Wisdom: Decision Making in Younger and Older Adults. Psychological Science. . PMID: 21960248
- June 24, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,736 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: When does the expert witness need to be prepared?
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Expert witnesses often think they don’t need to be “prepared” and that “preparation” is a sort of insult to their professionalism. “I’ve testified 100 times; trust me, I know the drill”. In truth, experts often need more preparation than fact witnesses and it is exactly because of their professional status. It isn’t about the expert’s [...]
Related posts:Simple Jury Persuasion: Make Your Expert Optimally Persuasive
Simple Jury Persuasion: The Alpha Strategies
Simple Jury Persuasion: Using attraction to your advantage
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Dvoskin, J.A., & Guy, L.S. (2008) On being an expert witness: It’s not about you. . Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 15(2). info:/
- August 24, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,527 views
Want to be exploited, harassed and poor? Take your new husband’s last name!
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
I tried to convince my headstrong niece otherwise but she persisted. She didn’t think keeping her last name mattered. As a member of the generation that pioneered the acceptability for women to keep their own last name after marriage, I was sure it did. Now I know I was right. And now she will know [...]
Related posts:Hard to be a woman? The beat goes on….
Redux: Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman (with appreciation to Tammy Wynette, Linda Ronstadt and Anne Reed)
“I didn’t know truth had a gender”
... Read more »
Noordewier, M., Horen, F., Ruys, K., & Stapel, D. (2010) What's in a Name? 361.708 Euros: The Effects of Marital Name Change. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 32(1), 17-25. DOI: 10.1080/01973530903539812
- July 20, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,516 views
Does desire trump beliefs based on facts when evaluating scientific evidence?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
You probably know the answer to this question is yes. But the real answer is much more nuanced, which makes it so much more interesting. As it happens, if you are conflicted about the facts, you are more likely to be swayed by your desires than the facts themselves. When I was in graduate school, [...]
Related posts:Generation Y (aka the Millennials): Just the facts
Why facts don’t matter
Faulty Logic: Cannabis, psychosis and fish oil
... Read more »
Bastardi A, Uhlmann EL, & Ross L. (2011) Wishful thinking: belief, desire, and the motivated evaluation of scientific evidence. Psychological science, 22(6), 731-2. PMID: 21515736
- July 15, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,440 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Does Using an Interpreter Help or Hinder the Plaintiff?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
You’ve seen non-native English speakers struggle to be understood on the witness stand. Even native English speakers can be tough to understand due to speech dialects or thick styles of pronunciation. We know accents make us all work harder to comprehend and that most of us don’t like to work that hard. So what happens [...]
Related posts:Simple Jury Persuasion: Alpha and Omega Persuasion Strategies
Simple Jury Persuasion: Liking + Identification = Impact
Simple Jury Persuasion: “How likely are you to…”
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Shuman DW, Stokes L, & Martinez G. (2011) Stranger at the Gate: the Effect of the Plaintiff's use of an Interpreter on Juror Decision-Making. Behavioral sciences . PMID: 21618274
- December 24, 2010
- 07:07 AM
- 1,436 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Are those folks in the jury box thinkers or feelers?
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Here’s a nice and very simple persuasion tactic first presented at PsyBlog in their ongoing series on 10 forms of persuasion. They cite the recent work of Nicole Mayer & Zakary Tormala (2010) and discuss the natural tendency we have to see the world (and thus describe it) via either thinking (useless or useful) or [...]
Related posts:Simple Jury Persuasion: I’m too smart to fall for that!
Simple Jury Persuasion: You may want to disagree with this post
Simple Jury Persuasion: Don’t confuse argument with persuasion
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Mayer ND, & Tormala ZL. (2010) "Think" versus "feel" framing effects in persuasion. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 36(4), 443-54. PMID: 20363901
- January 19, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,390 views
Martin Luther King, Jr. & Eliot Spitzer: On letting people off the hook [Part II]:
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Effron & Monin’s work on ambiguous and blatant transgressions has multiple applications for our work. In the past, we’ve blogged about Tiger Woods, Eliot Spitzer, and David Letterman. We want to take some time to discuss Effron & Monin’s work in the context of our prior writing on high profile falls from grace. (See Part [...]
Related posts:Martin Luther King, Jr. & Eliot Spitzer: On letting people off the hook [Part I]
Apology redux: Doing it right (and doing it wrong)
Eliot Spitzer, Uncivil Behavior & Possibilities of Redemption
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Effron DA, & Monin B. (2010) Letting people off the hook: when do good deeds excuse transgressions?. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 36(12), 1618-34. PMID: 20978222
- January 17, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,375 views
Martin Luther King, Jr. & Eliot Spitzer: On letting people off the hook [Part I]
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Martin Luther King, Jr. committed adultery. So did Eliot Spitzer. And although CNN’s David Gergen insists he did not compare Eliot Spitzer with Martin Luther King, Jr., we know of some researchers who did. Effron & Monin (2010) wondered what made the difference in how we decide to punish some people for bad behavior let others [...]
Related posts:Eliot Spitzer, Uncivil Behavior & Possibilities of Redemption
Apology redux: Doing it right (and doing it wrong)
Got morals?
... Read more »
Effron DA, & Monin B. (2010) Letting people off the hook: when do good deeds excuse transgressions?. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 36(12), 1618-34. PMID: 20978222
- September 9, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,365 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Would “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” still work?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Catchy slogans, phrases and themes have long been the hallmark of a persuasive courtroom presentation. But new research throws a question on whether they are as effective as we would like to think. Researchers compared the effect of both logos (brands) and slogans (phrases) on subjects. They discuss past research where showing the Apple logo resulted [...]
Related posts:Simple Jury Persuasion: “You know you want to trust me!”
Simple Jury Persuasion: I’m too smart to fall for that!
Simple Jury Persuasion: KISS–Keeping it simple, simple…
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Laran, J., Dalton A., & Andrade, E. (2011) The curious case of behavioral backlash: Why brands produce priming effects and slogans produce reverse priming effects. . Journal of Consumer Research. info:/
- February 9, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,310 views
We pray with closed eyes
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We’ve talked about the “look inside yourself” strategy in case presentation before. It’s a deceptively simple strategy to minimize bias and to help jurors get in touch with their moral center rather than operating blindly on pre-existing assumptions. Okay, so part of it may be in the delivery by our client Richard– who has a [...]
Related posts:“I can look into his eyes and just tell he is lying”
Imagine and decrease bias
The Jury Expert for May 2010 is uploaded... Read more »
Caruso EM, & Gino F. (2011) Blind ethics: Closing one's eyes polarizes moral judgments and discourages dishonest behavior. Cognition, 118(2), 280-5. PMID: 21145538
- June 15, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,301 views
“For $15M, I’d marry a saber-toothed tiger!”
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Family law cases are almost always sad. They are typically filled with issues of bitterness, betrayal, rejection and character. And if those aren’t distressing enough under normal circumstances, in Texas—if you are rich enough and angry enough—you can have a divorce trial in front of a jury. Recently as we did a focus group on a particularly [...]
Related posts:Charlie Sheen or Tiger Woods? When behavior doesn’t fit the image
Choosing to either disgust your jurors or tick them off
Got morals?
... Read more »
Vazire, Simine, & Carlson, Erika. (2011) Others sometimes know us better than we know ourselves. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(2), 104-108. info:/
- January 28, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,280 views
Simply Resisting Persuasion: Digressing
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We’ve been doing our series on Simple Jury Persuasion for a while now and thought it might also be good to illustrate some of the most common ways we see people trying to resist persuasion (and then provide you ways to counter their resistance. Researchers (and even popular writers) have studied this topic for years. [...]
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Jacks, J., & Cameron, K. (2003) Strategies for Resisting Persuasion. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 25(2), 145-161. DOI: 10.1207/S15324834BASP2502_5
- February 4, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,271 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Stand up straight but avoid gesturing with your hands in front of the jury!
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Just in time for the New Year—we have breaking news in research about how to achieve success and stay on message. First, Mom was right (again)! Stand up straight! And stop talking so much with your hands! It’s distracting. While Mom was right about that first one (stand up straight!) she was wrong about the reasons [...]
Related posts:Simple Jury Persuasion: You may want to disagree with this post
Simple Jury Persuasion: Be Powerful in the Courtroom
Simple Jury Persuasion: Avoid ‘oops you did it again’ errors
... Read more »
Susan Goldin-Meadow, & Sian L. Beilock. (2010) Action’s Influence on Thought: The Case of Gesture. . Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(6). info:/
Huang L, Galinsky AD, Gruenfeld DH, & Guillory LE. (2011) Powerful postures versus powerful roles: which is the proximate correlate of thought and behavior?. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 22(1), 95-102. PMID: 21149853
- February 25, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,268 views
A screwdriver: The new addition to your trial toolbox? (We think not.)
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
You truly never know what you’ll need in court. The unexpected happens. We are here to give you an edge. Back in May, 2010 we wrote about how people tend to remember things more when they are placed to their left. So we recommended you place your exhibits to the left while casually moving opposing [...]
Related posts:You’re on trial: Is it better to be an atheist or a black radical Muslim lesbian?
“Reactions vary along traditional partisan lines”
Secret Weapon: The Chairs in the Jury Box?
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Oppenheimer, D., & Trail, T. (2010) Why leaning to the left makes you lean to the left: Effect of spatial orientation on political attitudes. Social Cognition, 28(5). info:/
- December 20, 2010
- 07:02 AM
- 1,265 views
Women and true crime tales of rape, murder & serial killers
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
I remember being fascinated by Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. And during my maternity leave after my first child was born, I watched most of the Jeffrey Dahmer trials on CNN aware of the irony inherent in rocking my sleeping newborn while tracking the testimony of Park Dietz. So, naturally, when I saw the new [...]
Related posts:Men married to rich women are more likely to cheat
Keep your eye on this one: A Depravity Scale
New research on men: What do we know now?
... Read more »
Vicary, A., & Fraley, R. (2010) Captured by True Crime: Why Are Women Drawn to Tales of Rape, Murder, and Serial Killers?. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(1), 81-86. DOI: 10.1177/1948550609355486
- July 1, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 1,246 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Should we channel Donna Reed and James Dean?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Really? Tell me it isn’t so. Okay. We are not so sure about this one. We’ve spent lots of time telling you about research that talks about being likable, how to be persuasive to juries, and the importance of jurors seeing you as “like” them but still true to yourself. So now, we have new research saying that [...]
Related posts:Simple Jury Persuasion: Using attraction to your advantage
Simple Jury Persuasion: Tilt your head. (no kidding)
Simple Jury Persuasion: She reminds me of my Grandmother…
... Read more »
Tracy JL, & Beall AT. (2011) Happy guys finish last: The impact of emotion expressions on sexual attraction. Emotion (Washington, D.C.). PMID: 21604870
- April 8, 2011
- 07:10 AM
- 1,237 views
Stereotype fears and the lovely scent of vanilla
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Tammy sang it and we keep track of it just for you. Yes. Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman. Especially when we are reminded of the fact we are women. Internationally based researchers studied the impact of stereotype fears [especially when it comes to science, technology, engineering and math] on women’s intent to purchase [...]
Related posts:Redux: Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman (with appreciation to Tammy Wynette, Linda Ronstadt and Anne Reed)
“I didn’t know truth had a gender”
Hard to be a woman? The beat goes on….
... Read more »
KYOUNGMI LEE, HAKKYUN KIM, & KATHLEEN D. VOHS. (2011) Stereotype Threat in the Marketplace: Consumer Anxiety and Purchase Intentions. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(August). info:/
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