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Linguistic Complexity, Information Processing, and Public Acceptance of Supreme Court Decisions
Author(s) -
Hansford Thomas G.,
Coe Chelsea
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
political psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.419
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-9221
pISSN - 0162-895X
DOI - 10.1111/pops.12497
Subject(s) - fluency , processing fluency , terminology , set (abstract data type) , incentive , psychology , supreme court , information processing , social psychology , linguistics , cognitive psychology , computer science , political science , law , philosophy , mathematics education , microeconomics , economics , programming language
Scholars suggest that judges have an incentive to use complex language to increase support for their decisions. Research on the effects of processing fluency, however, points towards a different set of expectations. Using a survey experiment, we manipulate the complexity of the language conveying two Court decisions and two types of source cue. For the less polarizing of the two decisions, we find that by decreasing processing fluency, complex decision language can both decrease acceptance of the decision and diminish the importance of source cues in arriving at this judgment. Legalistic terminology, however, increases acceptance.