How are jurors affected by dollar amounts requested by plaintiffs? (May, 2007, Issue 2)
Hastie and colleagues (2002) examined how dollar amounts requested by a plaintiff influence jurors' damage awards...
What are jurors’ attitudes toward battered women who kill? (May, 2007, Issue 1)
Jurors have expectations about battered women who kill, and their verdicts are influenced by the extent to which a defendant matches or deviates from those expectations. Russell (1999) found that jurors expect a battered woman to exhibit certain physical, social, behavioral and psychological characteristics...
How do jurors react to a corporation’s cost-benefit analysis? (April, 2007, Issue 6)
Companies conduct cost-benefit analyses for many reasons, including to help improve safety. These cost-benefit analyses affect juror decision-making when introduced at trial...
How do jurors understand elder abuse and neglect cases? (April, 2007, Issue 5)
Three recent studies examined how jurors' perceptions of the elderly affect verdicts in cases of elder abuse and elder neglect. One study looked at the health of the elderly person, another at the age of jurors, and another at the gender of jurors...
Is incriminating evidence more powerful when presented first or last during a trial? (April, 2007, Issue 4)
Incriminating evidence can be presented first, in the middle, or last in a trial. Costabile and Klein (2005) recently studied the timing of evidence presentation on juror verdicts in 4 separate experiments...
How do deliberations affect the decision to award punitive damages? (April, 2007, Issue 3)
Time spent in deliberations focusing on the defendant's actions and on the jury instructions affects decisions to award punitive damages...
How do deliberations affect the size of punitive damage awards? (April, 2007, Issue 2)
Deliberations often lead to larger punitive awards than what jurors would award individually. Schkade and colleagues (2002) examined the size of punitive damage awards, finding that a severity shift occurs in deliberations...
Are women who carry condoms less credible sexual assault victims? (April, 2007, Issue 1)
Safer sex health educators encourage women to carry condoms. This health practice is legally hazardous to women who are victims of sexual assault. Hynie and colleagues (2003) studied whether knowing that a female victim of a sexual assault was carrying a condom influenced perceptions of her sexual intention and subsequent judgments of the sexual assault...
Do jurors believe nervous witnesses? (March, 2007, Issue 6)
Recent research by Boccaccini and Brodsky (2002) finds that jurors expect criminal defendants who testify to be at least a little nervous, and are most likely to believe defendants...
What do jurors talk about in deliberations when deciding damages? (March, 2007, Issue 5)
Jurors discuss many topics when deciding on damages, including topics that parties to the litigation are not allowed to mention. Mott and colleagues (2000) interviewed 269 jurors from 36 civil cases concerning their deliberations, the strategies their juries used, and the factors considered in arriving at a collective damage award. Jurors reported discussing...