ABSTRACT

This study aimed to clarify the standard for layperson’s legal decision and identify factors that contribute to establishing the criterion. Two samples were studied (undergraduate students and community members) to test the hypothesis that laypeople use a lower criterion for their legal decisions than the beyond a reasonable doubt (BRD) rule ordered by law. Relationships among individual’s implicit threshold (IT) for a legal decision and other psychological representations (e.g., not blameworthy, not guilty, desire to punish) were also analyzed. Participants read one of two or three vignettes describing a murder case and provided their verdicts, perceived likelihood of guilt ratings, and quantified mental representations of ‘innocent’ and BRD. In both studies, mean IT was lower than mean BRD. The concordance rate comparison in both studies showed that IT, rather than BRD, is a more accurate measure of laypeople’s legal decision thresholds. In Study 2, IT was positively correlated with representations of ‘innocent,’ suggesting that these representations of ‘innocent’ may be a significant factor that lowered the decision threshold. This study advances knowledge in the field by proposing a novel concept regarding layperson’s legal decision and exploring its relationships with other legal decision-making factors.

摘要

本研究旨在阐明外行法律决定的标准，并确定有助于建立该标准的因素。对两个样本（本科生和社区成员）进行了研究，以测试以下假设：即外行对其法律决定使用的标准低于法律规定的排除合理怀疑 (BRD) 规则。个人对法律决定的隐性阈值 (IT) 与其他心理表征（例如，不值得指责、无罪）之间的关系，惩罚的愿望）也进行了分析。参与者阅读描述谋杀案的两三个小插曲中的一个，并提供他们的判决、对有罪评级的感知可能性以及对“无辜”和 BRD 的量化心理表征。在这两项研究中，平均 IT 低于平均 BRD。两项研究中的一致性率比较表明，IT 而非 BRD 是衡量外行法律决策阈值的更准确方法。在研究 2 中，IT 与“无辜”的表述呈正相关，表明这些“无辜”的表述可能是降低决策阈值的重要因素。本研究通过提出一个关于外行法律决策的新概念并探索其与其他法律决策因素的关系，提高了该领域的知识。