ABSTRACT

In order to consider the relevant relationships between emotion, information processing and judicial judgment, this study evaluated the impact of positive (amusement), negative (sadness) or neutral mood induction on 128 mock jurors’ visual attentional focus, as measured by their eye fixations on the face of a witness filmed while giving testimony in a criminal court. Participants then rated their perceptions of the witness's and their own emotions on the Differential Emotional Scale, before indicating their final judicial judgment. As expected, results showed that sadness can favour information processing in a in more effortful mode, with more steady visual attention, while a positive emotional state such as amusement can favour information processing based more on the witness's emotions, a source of useful clues for establishing the judicial judgment. These results are discussed in relation to how the cognitive approach can shed light on the processes underlying judicial judgment.

摘要

为了考虑情绪，信息处理和司法判决之间的相关关系，本研究评估了积极（娱乐），消极（悲伤）或中性情绪诱导对128位模拟陪审员视觉注视力的影响，通过他们的眼睛注视来衡量面对在刑事法庭作证时拍摄的证人的脸。然后，参与者在给出最终的司法判决之前，以微分情感量表对证人的看法和自己的情感进行评级。正如预期的那样，结果表明悲伤可以更轻松地支持信息处理，并具有更稳定的视觉注意力，而积极的情绪状态（例如娱乐）则可以更多地基于证人的情感来促进信息处理，为建立司法判决提供有用线索的来源。讨论这些结果的方法是关于认知方法如何阐明司法判决所依据的过程。