Mock Juror Judgment and the Insanity Plea - Effects of Incrimination and Sanity Information

• NCJ Number: 84558
• Journal: Journal of Applied Social Psychology Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: (1981) Pages: 166-180
• Author(s): R P McGlynn; E A Dreilinger
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 16 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Portions of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, May 1979

Annotation

This experimental study tests whether or not mock jurors' judgments conformed to legal requirements when jurors were given both guilt-relevant and sanity-relevant information, as are jurors in actual trials.

Abstract

Subjects were given information about a stabbing incident, which varied in incrimination value (high or low), and a psychological profile of the perpetrator, which varied in the degree of indicated insanity (high, medium, or low) in four replications of a 2x3 design. Judgments in the insanity plea replication were significantly affected by incrimination information even though sanity is legally the only issue. Insanity information predictably affected judgments in the sanity hearing but had only weak effects in the insanity plea context. Overall, the judgment dimension which equates insanity with not guilty results in a conflict which subjects resolved by viewing the dimension as more of a guilt dimension. Study data, 1 note, and 6 references are provided. (Author abstract modified)