ForsterLee and colleagues (1993) examined how substantive pretrial instructions about compensatory damage awards affected jurors in a toxic tort case. Some jurors were pre-instructed and post-instructed as to compensatory awards, while other jurors were only post-instructed prior to deliberations. The timing of the instructions affected both the amount of compensation awarded and in jurors' differentiation among plaintiffs...

Voir dire is typically conducted in public in groups, and potential jurors often are asked questions most people do not like answering in private and when alone. Post-trial interviews with jurors reveal that jurors often fail to answer fully or truthfully...

At times, defendants admit committing a crime, but argue that they should not be considered legally responsible because they have an excuse. Some excuses are more compelling than others, and some jurors are more compelled by the excuses than others. Heath and colleagues (2001) compared excuses...

When deciding to have a civil case resolved through arbitration, a bench trial, or a jury trial, a common concern focuses on damages the decision-maker might award. The perspective of judges and lawyers is often thought to be different than that of lay citizens. Robbennolt (2002) compared jurors' awards of punitive damages with those of trial judges...

While the opening statement is not considered by the courts to be evidence, opening statements can be highly influential in jurors' decisions...

Jurors who are authoritarian have a desire for order and well-defined rules, conform to conventional norms, and exhibit a desire to punish individuals who deviate from those norms. Authoritarians are often hostile to "out-group" members which, historically in the U.S., has included Jews, communists, sexual offenders, members of the women's movement, and many other easily identified groups. Authoritarian jurors often favor...

At times, damages requested by a plaintiff are very large, or even excessive. Social science research finds that even when the amount requested is large, or even excessive, jurors award more money (though perhaps not all that is requested)...

In principle, all jurors are created equal. In practice, this equalitarian ethic is seldom realized. The fact of the matter is that dominance hierarchies develop and juries consist in predictable ways of leaders, participants and followers. Prior experience is one factor that affects these dominance hierarchies because it affects a juror's participation in deliberations...

Jurors often are presented with some negative outcome (e.g., an injured plaintiff), and are asked to assess whether that outcome was foreseeable or preventable. Jurors frequently are unable to ignore the outcome information when reaching verdicts. Jurors "Monday-morning quarterback" and exhibit "20-20 hindsight." This "hindsight bias" is especially likely to produce liability judgments...

Attorneys can seek to discredit an expert witness in cross-examination by using (a) either leading or non-leading questions asked in (b) either a hostile or non-hostile style. Gibbs and colleagues (1989) investigated how effective different questioning styles are...