306 posts · 188,698 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
153 posts
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- July 4, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 324 views
Real men don’t make mistakes
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We’ve written before about the hazards of being a woman in a gender-incongruent career [like construction]. If you make a mistake, your credibility plummets beyond recovery. New research says men suffer this same fate, but for them, it’s bad if they make a mistake in a gender-congruent career [like construction], too. If a woman in [...]
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Thoroughgood, CN, Sawyer, KB, & Hunter, ST. (2012) Real men don’t make mistakes: Investigating the effects of leader gender, error type, and the occupational context on leader error perceptions. . Journal of Business Psychology. info:/
- June 29, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 226 views
I have good reasons for what I do! You’re just a bad person!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Ah–the fundamental attribution error. My behavior is explained by situations while yours is explained by your disposition. A simple example: “If Alice saw Bob trip over a rock and fall, Alice might consider Bob to be clumsy or careless (dispositional). If Alice tripped over the same rock herself, she would be more likely to blame the [...]
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Koval, P., Laham., S., Haslam, N., Bastian, B., & Whelan, J. (2012) Our flaws are more human than yours: Ingroup bias in humanizing negative characteristics. . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 283-295. DOI: 10.1177/0146167211423777
Tarrant, M., Branscombe, NR, Warner, RH, & Weston, D. (2012) Social identity and perceptions of torture: It’s moral when we do it. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology., 513-518. info:/
- June 27, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 297 views
Do we want Old Testament or New Testament jurors?
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
This year at the conference for the American Society of Trial Consultants, there was a discussion about regional differences in voir dire and jury selection. One Bible Belt consultant mentioned that rather than only Judeo-Christian religiosity–she was often interested in whether jurors were Old Testament or New Testament Christians. That is, did the jurors believe [...]
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Shariff, AF, & Norenzayan A. (2011) Mean gods make good people. Different views of God predict cheating behavior. . The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 85-96. DOI: 10.1080/10508619.2011.556990
- June 25, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 285 views
“Wide-faced men are going to lie and cheat”
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We’ve read about aggressive men with thick necks and wide faces. We often suspect them of being violent thugs. Some, more charitably, might opine they are simply more confident and assertive. Or maybe weight-lifters. New research says they are also likely liars and cheaters. Seriously? We all have biases and use stereotypes to make snap judgments [...]
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Stirrat, M., & Perrett, DI. (2012) Face structure predicts cooperation: Men with wider faces are more generous to their in-group when out-group competition is salient. Psychological Science. . DOI: 10.1177/0956797611435133
- June 22, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 260 views
Simplify! Forget values, experiences and attitudes–just look at jurors’ shoes!
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
We’re always looking for the mythical silver bullet that will tell us how to know what juror is worst (and best) for our case. But really? Shoes? There are first impressions and then there are those things we assume about you when we look at your shoes. Researchers had more than 200 undergraduates (including some nontraditional [...]
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Gillath, O., Bahns, AJ, Fe, F, & Crandall, CS. (2012) Shoes as a source of first impressions. . Journal of Research in Personality, 423-430. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2012.04.003
- June 20, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 293 views
Should you meet with that prospective client first or last?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Many of us are familiar with the recency effect (which would say be the last meeting) and the primacy effect (which would say don’t be last, be first). This body of research is also sometimes referred to as the “serial position effect” (which basically says, whatever you do, don’t get lost in the middle). Much of the research [...]
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Simonsohn U., & Gino, F. (2012) Daily Horizons: Evidence of Narrow Bracketing in Judgment from 10 years of MBA-admission Interviews. Psychological Science. info:/
- June 18, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 231 views
Excuse me, but “I’m not your wife!”
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
So cue the music. Wow. This one is guaranteed to give you pause, as we say in the South. [Yes. Texas is the South.] Contrary to the old Virginia Slims cigarette commercial, apparently the more things change the more they stay the same. A recent study examined the attitudes of men in the workplace: “A group of researchers [...]
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Sreedhari D. Desai, Dolly Chugh, & Arthur Brief. (2012) Marriage Structure and Resistance to the Gender Revolution in the Workplace. . SSRN. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2018259
- June 6, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 222 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: I’m pointing at the one in the middle
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
On the old game show, Let’s Make a Deal, Monty Hall invited contestants to choose between Door Number 1, Door Number 2 and Door Number 3. Only one door has a good prize behind it. Endless debates among people who appear to have very little to do have addressed the best door to pick. New research [...]
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Rodway, P., Schepman, A., & Lambert, J. (2012) Preferring the One in the Middle: Further Evidence for the Centre-stage Effect. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(2), 215-222. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1812
Nicola J. Gregory, & Timothy L. Hodgson. (2012) Giving subjects the eye and showing them the finger: Sociobiological cues and saccade generation in the anti-saccade task. . Perception, 41(2). info:/
- June 4, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 253 views
Should political orientation matter in voir dire?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
The answer is, “sometimes”. Ultimately, we all tend to favor the side that appears to reflect our values. When jury issues are values driven (often the case) and politics are values driven (as politicians would like us to believe) there can be a nexus. We see and judge the world based on whether it appears [...]
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O'Brien, E., & Ellsworth, P. (2012) More Than Skin Deep: Visceral States Are Not Projected Onto Dissimilar Others. Psychological Science, 23(4), 391-396. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611432179
- June 1, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 318 views
Do great liars know how to tell if you’re lying to them? (Yes, they do!)
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
“Don’t kid a kidder.” It’s a nice way of saying, “don’t lie to a liar”. We all think we are better than most others at identifying deception and generally–we’re only deceiving ourselves in this belief. But here’s a terrific way to become a terrific deception detector: polish up your skills as a liar! Researchers invited participants [...]
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Wright GR, Berry CJ, & Bird G. (2012) "You can't kid a kidder": association between production and detection of deception in an interactive deception task. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 87. PMID: 22529790
- May 30, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 313 views
The “hoodie effect”: A domestic variant of the turban effect
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Pretrial publicity often makes it difficult to find unbiased jurors to hear the actual story you need to tell them. The George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case continues to make headlines. There are few neutral observers. Some believe George Zimmerman’s behavior was justifiable. Others believe Zimmerman’s behavior reflects racial profiling, stalking and outright murder. Others discuss the [...]
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Keene, Douglas L., & Handrich, Rita R. (2012) “The hoodie effect”: George, Trayvon and how it might have happened. . The Jury Expert, 24(3.). info:/
- May 21, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 285 views
No one knows you’re a dog on the internet (actually, they do!)
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Contrary to the now famous New Yorker cartoon, people on the internet do know you’re a dog. Sort of. We’ve all heard of undercover police officers pretending to be children in online chat rooms as they attempt to identify pedophiles. The assumption behind this strategy is that an adult can successfully manipulate perceptions of their gender [...]
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Lincoln, R., & Coyle, IR. (2012) No-one knows you’re a dog on the internet: Implications for proactive police investigation of sexual offenders. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. info:/
- May 18, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 343 views
You don’t have to drink to show intoxicated recall and behavior!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Last year we blogged about a surprising study showing the recall accuracy of intoxicated witnesses. In that study, research participants who’d been drinking were just as accurate as sober research participants in describing events they had observed. New research, however, aligns more with what we expected regarding perceptual impairment from drinking. Well, sort of… What the research [...]
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Arkansas: If a judge calls you a ‘slut’ in open court, it doesn’t show prejudice........ Read more »
Stepanova, E., Bartholow, B., Saults, J., & Friedman, R. (2012) Alcohol-related cues promote automatic racial bias. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.02.006
- May 16, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 248 views
Black? On trial in Florida? You don’t want an all-white jury!
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Infographics are fabulous inventions. We can spend a long time describing the results of a study or we can simply show you a picture. In this case, it’s an infographic designed by Duke University. Yes, you saw that right. Some new research mirrors the findings of research conducted three decades ago! If you were a black [...]
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Anwar, S., Bayer, P., & Hjalmarsson, R. (2012) The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(2), 1017-1055. DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjs014
- May 14, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 275 views
Nice guys and gals: How much we both get paid
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
So–is it better to be ‘nice’ or ‘mean’ when it comes to salary? We’ll disclose right up front that this is not a feel good post for some of you. As it happens, if you are someone high in agreeableness, (aka ‘nice’) you are likely paid less than someone less agreeable (aka ‘nasty’). There are [...]
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Judge, T., Livingston, B., & Hurst, C. (2012) Do nice guys—and gals—really finish last? The joint effects of sex and agreeableness on income. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(2), 390-407. DOI: 10.1037/a0026021
- May 11, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 231 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Analytic or Intuitive?
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
According to some new research, if your case facts promote pro-religious themes or invoke pro-religious feelings, and you are plaintiff/prosecutor, you want intuitive jurors. If you are defense, you want those analytical jurors. If you weren’t thinking that far ahead, or end up with a mix of both types (the likely outcome) on your jury–you [...]
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Gervais WM, & Norenzayan A. (2012) Analytic thinking promotes religious disbelief. Science (New York, N.Y.), 336(6080), 493-6. PMID: 22539725
- May 9, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 331 views
The foreign-language effect: ESL Jurors
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We’ve seen multiple examples of jurors being excused because they learned English as a second language (ESL) and their English is limited. But new research shows us that there may be an advantage to the juror thinking in English when it is their second language. Researchers were interested in if and how the use of a [...]
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Keysar, B., Hayakawa, S., & An, S. (2012) The Foreign-Language Effect: Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611432178
- May 7, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 408 views
Dining while black: “Because they tip for shit!”
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Wow. So much for that “post-racial society”. On the heels of the new Duke study about all white juries in Florida convicting black defendants 16% more (still) than juries with even a single black member, we also have a study out of North Carolina State University on what the authors dub “tableside racism”. In other words, if [...]
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You’re on trial: Is it better to be an atheist or a black radical Muslim lesbian?
The Danger of Stereotyping: Does Gay + Black = Likable?
Do........ Read more »
Brewster, Z., & Rusche, S. (2012) Quantitative Evidence of the Continuing Significance of Race: Tableside Racism in Full-Service Restaurants. Journal of Black Studies, 43(4), 359-384. DOI: 10.1177/0021934711433310
Sarah E. Rusche, & Zachary W. Brewster. (2008) ‘Because they tip for shit!’: The Social Psychology of Everyday Racism in Restaurants. Sociology Compass, 2(6), 2008-2029. info:/
- May 4, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 357 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: The “turban effect”
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Yes, we know. You get this. Since 9-11-2001, we are all wary of Muslims and other turban-wearing people [who, after all, must be Muslim]. Regardless of the (in)accuracy of this perspective, it is prevalent and seemingly hard-wired in our brains. All the “true Islam does not condone violence” clarifications in the world do not seem to [...]
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Unkelbach, C., Forgas, J., & Denson, T. (2008) The turban effect: The influence of Muslim headgear and induced affect on aggressive responses in the shooter bias paradigm. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(5), 1409-1413. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.04.003
- May 2, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 568 views
Revisiting the “epilepsy defense”: A teenager and a dead mom
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Two months ago we wrote about the “epilepsy defense”. Now we read about a teenager killing his mother in the midst of a seizure. It’s a poignant and shocking example of why the ‘epilepsy defense’ appears to be valid under certain circumstances. Karyn Kay was a 63-year-old single mom who worked as a teacher in midtown [...]
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Wortzel HS, Strom LA, Anderson AC, Maa EH, & Spitz M. (2012) Disrobing associated with epileptic seizures and forensic implications. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 57(2), 550-2. PMID: 22150773
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