| The current study investigated the ways in which evidence is presented influences juror decision-making. Participants (N = 160) were asked to read a short vignette presenting details for a crime of murder and then answered a questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the defendants' guilt as well as a demographic questionnaire. It was predicted that emotionally arousing descriptions would lead to higher guilt ratings, more evidence would lead to higher guilt ratings, and strong evidence would lead to higher guilt ratings. The key prediction was that emotions would bias judgments towards guilt independent of the strength and amount of evidence. No main effect of emotionality on guilt ratings was found. However, emotions and the evidence presented were found to significantly influence mock-jurors suggested sentencing. It can be concluded that extralegal factors and legal factors both influence juror decision-making. The findings of the current study will have important implications in court-room proceedings.;Keywords: psychology and law, decision-making, extralegal, legal. |
