Entity theory and victim social class: The impact on juror decisions

The impact jurors' entity theory ascription and the victim's social class has on jurors' decisions is vastly under researched. Participants listened to a recording of the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial and were asked to give an appropriate sentence. The proposed study examined the effects low and high SES victims have on jurors' decisions in the sentencing phase of capital murder trials and the effects jurors' ascription to either entity or incremental theory have on their sentencing decision. Results indicated that older participants who heard the VIS of a high SES victim were significantly more likely to sentence the defendant to death compared to those who heard the VIS of a low SES victim. Whether jurors were entity or incremental theorists in regards to intelligence or personality/morality did not impact their sentence. The present study built upon past research and found that whether the victim is portrayed as being of high or low social class through a VIS and the age of the juror both influence mock jurors' sentences. These findings are helpful in understanding how jurors sentence defendants in capital murder trials.