The role of repeated attitudinal expressions in predicting juror behavior

Authors

Erin Michelle Danielsen, Florida International University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Major/Program

Psychology

First Advisor's Name

Margaret Bull Kovera

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Christian A. Meissner

Third Advisor's Name

Kevin O'Neil

Date of Defense

1-14-2005

Abstract

Although the social cognitive literature has established that attitude accessibility mediates the attitude-behavior relationship, psycholegal studies have not included attitude accessibility measures when investigating the attitude-verdict relationship. This study investigates whether source and frequency of attitudinal expression moderate attitude accessibility (operationalized as response latency) and the attitude-verdict relationship. I manipulated the source of the voir dire questioning (judge vs. attorney) and the number of times (one vs. six) that jurors expressed their attitudes toward presumption of innocence (PI) and eyewitness testimony. Repeated expression significantly increased attitude accessibility for the PI attitude. For both attitudes, when accessibility was weak, the attitude-verdict correlation was weak and unaffected by source. Neither source nor frequency of expression influenced the strength of attitude-verdict correlations. Repeated expression influenced multiple ratings, however, including verdict, attitudes toward presumption of innocence and eyewitnesses, and participants' certainty threshold needed to convict.

Identifier

FI14061596

Recommended Citation

Danielsen, Erin Michelle, "The role of repeated attitudinal expressions in predicting juror behavior" (2005). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2712.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2712