2024-04-16 17:38
Courtroom videos are presented in a variety of ways to jurors, being shown on such devices as small screens in the jury box, big screen television monitors, and large format projection scree… Read More
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Trial Advocacy & Persuasion: Using social science research to answer practical questions about trying cases to juries.
2024-03-24 00:08
Physical attractiveness is one of the most common cues used when people make decisions about everything from employment (hiring, promotions, compensation) to education (grades, attention fro… Read More
2024-02-18 02:13
Jurors who fail to reserve judgment against a defendant until after they hear the evidence are neither fair nor impartial. A problem for jurors is that the legal presumption of innocence can… Read More
2024-02-09 21:24
People, including judges and jurors, have a tendency to believe the information they receive. Taking information as true by default is referred to as the truth bias. Sometimes, the informati… Read More
2023-11-09 00:11
At times, settlement agreements are entered into evidence in jury trials or decision-makers become aware of prior settlement agreements. Are settling defendants perceived as responsible for… Read More
2023-09-26 22:22
It has been argued that jurors often undervalue circumstantial evidence (fingerprints, DNA, etc.) and overvalue direct evidence (eyewitness identifications, confessions), even when the circu… Read More
2023-09-19 13:42
It is not uncommon for jurors to express anger during deliberations. Does a juror's anger affect their influence on other jurors during deliberations? Are angry jurors either more or less pe… Read More
2023-09-12 22:07
Research has found that an attorney's estimate of the probability of success is the most crucial variable in shaping decisions whether to litigate or settle a case in controversy (see, for r… Read More
2023-08-17 00:35
One decision on which many judges have exercised caution is whether to allow cameras in their courtrooms, fearing that cameras will diminish the perceived legitimacy of the courts. While man… Read More
2023-08-08 01:30
Despite a common refrain in civil and criminal cases that "the facts speak for themselves", research finds that attorneys are more persuasive if they speak for the facts using a narrative fo… Read More
2023-07-23 00:47
Electronic recordings presented to jurors at trial often are accompanied by a written transcript to aid understanding of what is said. Transcription of electronic recordings is challenging e… Read More
2023-07-23 00:39
Transcripts exert a strong influence on jurors' perceptions of electronic recordings, even when the transcripts are demonstrably inaccurate, misleading or downright implausible. Zhang(2022)… Read More
2023-06-30 00:56
Historically, Republicans and Democrats have differed in their views about crime. Recently, Republicans and Democrats have changed their views of crime, law enforcement and the seriousness o… Read More
2023-06-22 23:26
Computer-generated animations, which recreate or illustrate an alleged sequence of events, are increasingly being used by lawyers to accompany witness testimony. Visual aids such as computer… Read More
2023-05-26 21:23
When recounting traumatic events, victims often cry, although not always in the courtroom. In the courtroom, some victims are stoic while others are emotional. The 'emotional witness effect'… Read More
2023-05-03 22:41
When testifying, witnesses can sound sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, happy or neutral, and exhibited emotions affect jurors' judgments of witness trustworthiness. Emotions affect acoustic pr… Read More
2023-04-27 20:50
Under the doctrines of contributory negligence and comparative negligence, the trier-of-fact -- most often a jury -- is responsible for apportioning responsibility for harm between multiple… Read More
Which Jurors Are Most And Least Likely To Harbor Implicit Racial Bias? | Online Jury Research Update
2023-03-18 17:42
While racial biases are often an uncomfortable topic to discuss in voir dire, jurors at least know whether they harbor explicit racial biases. By contrast, implicit racial biases lie outside… Read More
2023-03-10 20:32
Gender is at the heart of many legal cases, including employment cases alleging gender discrimination and family law custody disputes between a mother and father. Unlike most jurors, trial c… Read More
2023-02-28 22:26
n the interests of cost and trial efficiency, criminal defendants accused of involvement in the same crime, conspiracy or transaction can be tried together rather than separately. The bar fo… Read More
2023-02-24 22:18
Criminal defendants profering an alibi defense rely almost exclusively on person evidence (e.g., family and friends) to support their alibi, and are often unable to provide physical evidence… Read More
2023-01-20 00:21
Attorneys use a variety of communication modalities to present expert testimony to jurors and judges, including telephonic, recorded, video-conferenced, in-person (in-court) and transcribed… Read More
2022-12-17 22:18
One of jurors' most common tasks in a trial is to assess witness truthfulness... While everyday deception detection is poor, jurors might be especially well-placed to assess the truth of wit… Read More
2022-12-08 19:11
People are "contract formalists" (a) putting excessive weight on contracts' written terms (as compared to oral agreements), (b) believing that contracts are formed primarily through formalit… Read More
2022-12-02 19:35
Incivility in the courtroom is a widespread phenomenon that has myriad causes and takes myriad forms. Attorney rudeness, hostility, intimidation, personal attacks, unnecessary combativeness… Read More
2022-11-27 22:36
A LGBTQ+ panic defense is a legal strategy that asks jurors, directly or implicitly, to consider a victim's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to explain a criminal de… Read More
2022-11-22 18:18
While information nonprobative to the truth of a statement is not admissible in court, it nonetheless often is presented as a part of probative evidence. .. Research has found that when judg… Read More
2022-11-07 20:54
In 2015, the National Commission on Forensic Science (NCFS) affirmed that forensic examiners should draw conclusions solely from the physical evidence and not from any other evidence in the… Read More
2022-11-04 02:22
To prevent the biasing influence of information obtained outside the courtroom, courts often issue instructions to jurors that limit or prohibit certain activities during the trial and when… Read More
2022-10-18 21:23
Experts differ both in their expertise and their interpersonal style. An expert can offer higher or lower quality evidence than other experts, and can have a more or less likeable style than… Read More
2022-09-30 21:41
Attorneys are perceived as credible or non-credible trial attorneys based on the behaviors they enact during trial. Attorney credibility at trial has been assessed by behavioral measurement… Read More
2022-09-16 17:55
Dangerous driving resulting in the death of another person is judged more harshly by jurors when alcohol is involved. Dolnik and colleagues (2003) investigated what might limit the impact of… Read More
2022-09-08 19:50
Judicial rehabilitative questioning of jurors during voir dire is intended to ensure that biasing attitudes, beliefs and experiences of jurors will not influence their verdicts. Rehabilitati… Read More
2022-08-29 19:50
Information gathering about jurors is a central goal of voir dire. The choices lawyers make about the form and tone of questions affects both the quality and quantity of information obtained… Read More
2022-08-18 20:49
The law seeks to ensure that injured plaintiffs are compensated for their injuries regardless of their race, ethnicity or gender. Girvan and Marek (2016) investigated how jurors differential… Read More
2022-08-12 15:04
The goal of equality before the law depends on judges setting aside their biases. Judicial codes of ethics and judicial oaths demand that judges disregard prejudices based on race, gender, e… Read More
2022-08-07 18:45
The law assumes that proof beyond a reasonable doubt, clear and convincing evidence, and preponderance of evidence are standards of proof providing defendants with different degrees of prote… Read More
2022-08-05 21:07
Opportunities for deception are common in negotiations, and expectations about negotiation deception matter. Mason and colleagues (2018) conducted eight studies on negotiation deception. Fiv… Read More
2022-07-30 19:08
In a legal case, misinformation consists of any faulty information that an eyewitness receives after a crime takes place. Morgan and colleagues (2103) studied how misinformation provided dur… Read More
2022-07-24 23:09
Using a general versus specific verdict form can affect the liability decision made by a jury. Schmidt and Diamond (1998) examined the effect of verdict forms on liability judgments in a pro… Read More
2022-07-11 20:48
Pre-trial publicity (PTP) related to a case often is both sided and slanted, emphasizing primarily negative information in an unbalanced manner about either the defendant or the injured part… Read More
2022-07-06 23:28
Evidence can be presented to jurors both verbally and visually, and if visual, as either an illustrative or substantative demonstrative. A substantive demonstrative has independent probative… Read More
2022-05-09 16:45
Beliefs about what qualifies as sexual harassment matter to how judges and juries make decisions in sexual harassment cases.Rotundo, Nguyen and Sackett (2001) found in a meta-analysis of 62… Read More
2022-05-02 02:00
Multiple witnesses often observe an incident and, on average, 86% engage in post-event discussion with their co-witnesses (Paterson and Kemp, 2006). Witness communication can contaminate the… Read More
2022-04-24 15:30
Hindsight bias is the tendency to overestimate the foreseeability of an outcome once the outcome is known. The hindsight bias is pervasive in decision-making, including juror decision-making… Read More
2022-04-17 23:36
Journalists rely on eyewitnesses for many important details in news reports of legal cases. Reporters ask eyewitnesses questions and publish news reports of information that both includes an… Read More
2022-04-10 21:00
False confessions are not rare. The National Registrar of Exonerations has reported that of the 2,400 exonerees in their database, 292 (12 percent) had falsely confessed. The Innocence Proje… Read More
2022-04-03 00:28
Judges are increasingly using implicit bias instructions in jury trials. Implicit bias instructions are meant to educate jurors, transform what is implicit or unconscious into something reco… Read More
2022-03-28 19:24
Jurors exist in a day-to-day world consisting primarily of visual presentations of information, a world that eschews purely verbal presentations of information. A courtroom trial exists is a… Read More
2022-03-06 21:43
Jurors do not experience a criminal trial as neutral blank slates. Jurors come to the trial with pre-existing attitudes and beliefs about many issues, including about the legal system. Socia… Read More
2022-03-01 23:43
Jurors typically have strong opinions about the attorneys in their case, impressed by some conduct and irritated by other conduct. Between 2011 and 2017, a federal district judge in the Nort… Read More
2022-02-14 22:23
In civil cases, attorneys often show jurors gruesome images of a plaintiff's injuries. Photographs are often presented not only to describe and inform jurors of injuries, but also to arouse… Read More
2022-02-02 00:15
Violations of the letter of the law can be distinct from violations of the spirit of the law. The letter of the law is a formal boundary between that which is legal and illegal, such as driv… Read More
2022-01-22 16:59
Jurors commonly are allowed to take notes during trial. Dann and colleagues (2004, 2020) investigated the content of notes taken by mock jurors and examined how jurors take notes about simpl… Read More
What Are Effective Defense Responses To The Plaintiff's Damages Request? Online Jury Research Update
2022-01-06 23:58
Numerous studies have shown that jurors' damages decisions are strongly affected by the damages amount suggested by a plaintiff's attorney, independent of the strength of the actual evidence… Read More
2021-12-13 22:22
While most jurors take notes during trial when allowed to do so, not every juror chooses to do so. Dann and colleagues (2004) report on juror note-taking among 480 community members who watc… Read More
2021-12-05 20:12
Almost every state that enforces the death penalty allows for victim impact statements during the penalty phase of the trial. Nunez and colleagues (2017) examined the effects of angry and sa… Read More
2021-11-28 22:45
Considerable research on juror note-taking has been conducted in both actual and mock trials for many years. Extensive pilot programs and field studies on juror note-taking have been underta… Read More
2021-11-22 18:39
Jurors often hold false beliefs about both rape and rape victims. These false beliefs, called rape myths, shape attributions of blame and jury verdicts in rape cases. The Updated Illinois Ra… Read More
2021-11-17 23:29
In most civil litigation, the burden of proof required to find a defendant liable is probabilistic: If it is more likely than not (i.e., over 50%) that a defendant caused a plaintiff's injur… Read More
2021-11-01 23:24
Jurors in criminal trials are instructed they may not draw any inference of guilt when criminal defendants exercise their right not to testify. Jurors often also are instructed that defendan… Read More
2021-10-23 20:59
Tort liability often hinges on whether a defendant behaved as a "reasonable person" would have under the circumstances. Jurors often must decide if a defendant acted as would a reasonably pr… Read More
2021-10-06 21:25
Many trials are full of charts and graphs intended to communicate numerical information clearly and to persuade jurors of the specific facts or conclusions that are illustrated. The graphs a… Read More
2021-10-01 20:40
During penalty phase deliberations in capital cases, jurors are expected to weigh legally-specified aggravators and mitigators to reach a sentence of life in prison without parole or death… Read More
2021-09-19 12:00
Jurors regularly are instructed about circumstantial evidence using pattern jury instructions that many states have rewritten so as to make legal concepts more comprehensible to people witho… Read More
2021-09-11 12:00
When witnesses are asked questions, sometimes they respond quickly and sometimes they pause before answering. Does a fast answer or a pause before responding make a difference to how believa… Read More
2021-09-06 12:00
During trial, objections are the primary way in which an attorney can enforce evidentiary rules. Many attorneys worry that objecting might alienate a jury. Reed (2019) examined juror reactio… Read More
2021-08-27 12:00
In both civil and criminal trials, jurors are instructed about the burden of proof of the parties with pattern jury instructions. Many states have re-written their instructions to try to be… Read More
2021-08-26 12:00
Expert witnesses testify in the vast majority of trials (see, for review, Jurs, 2016). Research conducted over three decades involving jurors in actual trials with expert testimony produces… Read More
2021-08-12 12:00
The law regarding jury selection in civil cases varies widely across trials, venues, judges and court systems. Voir dire can be fast or slow, done by attorneys and/or a judge, and focus on b… Read More
2021-08-06 12:00
The biography and character of a criminal defendant are legally irrelevant factors in the determination of guilt, particularly the definition of a crime. While jurors' attributions of blame… Read More
2021-07-31 12:00
Punitive damages are meant to punish a defendant and deter similar conduct in the future. The U.S. Supreme Court suggests that the ratio of punitive damages to compensatory damages generally… Read More
2021-06-28 12:00
The judicial system weights a juror's self-diagnoses of bias and fairness during voir dire very heavily, assuming that, as a factual matter, jurors can undertake accurately this self-assessm… Read More
2021-06-24 12:00
The modern #MeToo movement started in late 2017. In 2010, well before the #Metoo movement, Wright and colleagues reported research results related to a rape case. In 2019, Conklin (2020) use… Read More
2021-06-19 12:00
Emotional expression is a key part of trial advocacy for attorneys. Many attorneys are encouraged to demonstrate conviction through the expression of anger as a way to gain credibility with… Read More
2021-06-04 12:00
Judges often limit the number and kinds of experts who can testify at trial, paying particular attention to repetition of information across experts. Nonetheless, attorneys often still can c… Read More
2021-05-20 12:00
Juror demographic characteristics such as age, race, gender, marital status, income, education and number of children predict almost no variation in the verdict preferences of individual jur… Read More
2021-05-20 10:00
A court's decision about allowing the use of the term ‘victim’ versus ‘complaining witness’ may seem trivial, and yet language is known to have powerful effects. The… Read More
2021-04-27 18:00
A plaintiff's attorney can request damage awards and make settlement offers using more precise or less precise amounts in the request. Conklin (2020) studied whether a plaintiff's attorney c… Read More
2021-04-19 18:00
During voir dire, judges frequently attempt to rehabilite potential jurors who express an inability to be impartial. In an insanity defense case, jurors opposed to a not guilty by reason of… Read More
2021-04-18 18:00
In civil cases, potential jurors often express concerns about plaintiffs' motives, corporate defendants, non-economic damages, the burden of proof, lawsuits, and the like. Judges often ask r… Read More
2021-04-17 18:00
Jurors in criminal cases are instructed to find guilt when proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jurors also are provided imprecise definitions of what constitutes reasonable doubt: an actual an… Read More
2011-09-21 18:00
Jurors sometimes withhold information during voir dire. In 1994, a prospective juror refused to answer several items on her juror questionnaire, maintaining that questions about her income… Read More
2011-08-17 08:00
The American Bar Association reports that fewer than 10% of attorneys are minorities, with African Americans at 3.9%, Hispanics at 3.3%, and Asian Americans at less than 1%. The rate of entr… Read More
2011-08-15 20:00
Jurors with higher occupational statuses, higher levels of education, and higher incomes have higher social status. Social status disparities affect our communication activities and social b… Read More
2011-08-12 18:00
Our reactions to events are determined not only by what actually happened, but also by what might have happened. Jurors think about what might have happened using "if only" statements: if on… Read More
Are Spanish-speaking Witnesses More Credible To Spanish-speaking Jurors? Online Jury Research Update
2011-08-08 22:01
Jurors prefer that witnesses speak in jurors' predominant language. Witnesses who testify in a foreign language are often perceived to be less credible than witnesses who testify in English… Read More
2011-07-31 20:00
Parties have a right to the judgment of jurors unclouded by bias, prejudice, or a fixed or preconceived opinion. Juror questionnaires are often opposed because they are argued to cause delay… Read More
2011-07-29 10:00
Juries are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse in the United States. How much do non-Caucasian jurors participate in deliberations in comparison to White jurors, and does participation… Read More
2011-07-26 10:00
In the 1950s, Strodtbeck and colleagues (1956, 1957) conducted realistic mock jury research, using mock jurors chosen from the jury rolls, to determine which jurors talked most during delibe… Read More
2011-07-06 10:00
Jurors' verdicts in sexual harassment cases are usually studied absent any consideration of the race of the plaintiff and defendant. Bothwell and colleagues (2006) examined discrimination ag… Read More
2011-06-21 10:00
Many trials are conducted with courtroom interpretation of testimony. Berk-Seligson (1987) analyzed 2,470 answers by 27 Spanish-speaking witnesses as interpreted into English by six interpre… Read More
2011-06-14 08:00
The study of jurors' opinion formation and change over the course of trials rarely relies on data from real jurors, and instead is usually based on studies of mock jurors or student jurors… Read More
2011-06-07 07:00
Witnesses differ in how powerless or powerful their speech style is, and their speech style affects their credibility. O'Barr (1982) investigated the courtroom speech style of witnesses, and… Read More
2011-06-01 07:00
The position of the juror who is a dissenter in deliberations is glorified in the movie Twelve Angry Men. But which jurors dissent, which hang the jury, and which simply acquiesce to the maj… Read More
2011-04-26 07:00
In the sentencing phase of capital cases, jurors frequently hear about a defendant's history of child abuse and alcohol abuse. The defense offers this evidence in mitigation. Stevenson and c… Read More
2011-04-19 07:00
Cultures differ in norms of sexual conduct for men and women, and in what is perceived as sexual harassment. Schwartz and Hunt (2011) investigated how jurors respond to arguments about cultu… Read More
2011-04-12 07:00
Jurors with no specific expert knowledge routinely need to evaluate complex and conflicting expert testimony. Vidmar (1995) conducted extensive post-trial interviews of jurors in five differ… Read More
2011-04-05 07:00
The insurance exclusionary rule in civil trials prohibits disclosure to jurors about whether a party is insured to prevent, among other things, jurors adjusting damages awards because a part… Read More
2011-03-22 07:00
Jurors often receive instructions limiting the use of particular evidence offered at trial. Wissler and Saks (1985) investigated whether jurors are able to follow limiting instructions about… Read More
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