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Could Attempts to Reducethe Effects of Inadmissible Evidence Go Too Far?
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by Justin Joseph - John Carroll University
Categories: Cognitive | Social | Motivation
The present research explored whether jurors might convict defendants less frequently when a judge warns the jurors that inadmissible evidence could be presented at trial and later instructs them to disregard that evidence because it is unreliable. The study also attempted to determine if jurors in either the previous condition or a second condition in which a judge instructed the jurors to disregard the inadmissible evidence but did not give the later warning, would exhibit the backfire effect by convicting the defendant more often. The results indicated that the judge’s admonishment and warning eliminated the backfire effect, but the conviction rates in the condition with a warning were not lower than the control condition in which the evidence was not presented.
Summer 2010 | Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research (Vol. 15, No. 2, p. 84), published by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 2010, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.