Author(s): Kidd, Taylor | Advisor(s): Lynch, Mona | Abstract: Research consistently finds that jurors bring preexisting attitudes and opinions, which can influence trial outcomes, into the courtroom. However, the process of jury selection (voir dire) remains largely unchanged. This research seeks to understand if juror decision-making is influenced by implicit perceptions of legal actor trustworthiness. Participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online platform and were randomly assigned to read a summarized trial scenario. Participants rendered a guilty or not guilty verdict and reported their perceptions of the prosecutors and defense attorneys from the trial scenarios. Two of the three trials differed according to presentation of “compromising” evidence by either the prosecution or defense, with the third serving as a control condition. Additionally, to establish if participants had trustworthy or untrustworthy implicit attitudes toward prosecutors or defense attorneys, participants completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT). Participants then reported explicit attitudes and opinions about the role of prosecutors and defense attorneys in society, in addition to providing their demographic information and criminal legal system attitudes. Results indicate that explicit biases and certain demographic variables are strongly associated with verdicts in trial scenarios, as compared to implicit biases. However, in particularly ambiguous cases, implicit biases of legal actor trustworthiness appear to inform verdicts. These results suggest that reliance on explicit attitudes and demographic characteristics during voir dire may not be adequate predictors of individual juror outcomes in cases in which the evidence for both the prosecution and defense is particularly ambiguous.

中文翻译：

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对检察官和辩护律师的隐性和显性态度

作者：基德、泰勒 | 顾问：Lynch, Mona | 摘要：研究一致发现，陪审员将可能影响审判结果的预先存在的态度和意见带入法庭。然而，陪审团选择（voir dire）的过程在很大程度上保持不变。本研究旨在了解陪审员的决策是否受到对法律行为者可信度的内隐认知的影响。参与者是从亚马逊的 Mechanical Turk 在线平台招募的，并被随机分配阅读总结的试验场景。参与者做出有罪或无罪的判决，并报告了他们从审判场景中对检察官和辩护律师的看法。三项审判中的两项根据控方或辩方提出的“妥协”证据而有所不同，第三个作为控制条件。此外，为了确定参与者是否对检察官或辩护律师有可信赖或不可信赖的内隐态度，参与者完成了内隐联想测试 (IAT)。然后，除了提供他们的人口统计信息和刑事法律制度的态度之外，参与者还报告了对检察官和辩护律师在社会中的作用的明确态度和意见。结果表明，与隐性偏见相比，显性偏见和某些人口统计变量与试验场景中的判决密切相关。然而，在特别模棱两可的情况下，法律行为者可信度的隐含偏见似乎会影响判决。