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Educative Expert Testimony: A One–Two Punch Can Affect Jurors' Decisions
Author(s) -
NUÑEZ NARINA,
GRAY JENNIFER,
BUCK JULIE A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00782.x
Subject(s) - hearsay , verdict , psychology , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , law , political science , communication
The present research examined whether different types of educative expert testimony can increase mock jurors' knowledge of problems associated with hearsay witnesses and decrease guilty verdicts. Studies 1 ( N = 304 college students) and 2 ( N = 196 college students) varied the length and types of expert testimony in a trial transcript. While all types of expert testimony did inform mock jurors' knowledge, guilty verdicts decreased when multiple problems with hearsay were presented. The length of the testimony had no effect on verdict. The results suggest that experts who present multiple problems with hearsay testimony are more likely to impact guilty decisions than is no expert or an expert who presents only one problem.