Effects of Direct and Indirect Emotional Manipulations on Mock Jurors’ Decision-Making

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Authors

Edwards, Charles P

Issue Date

2022

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Dissertation

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Appraisal-Tendency Framework , Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory , Emotions , Fear Appeal , Incivility , Juror Decision-Making

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The role of emotion at trial, especially in relation to jurors’ emotional states, is a controversial and contentious topic. A primary concern is that jurors’ emotions will be manipulated and these manipulated emotions will affect verdicts improperly. Jurors’ emotions can be manipulated in multiple ways, such as indirectly through observed emotional situations or directly through emotional appeals. Two psychological theories�"the Appraisal-Tendency Framework (ATF) and Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST)�"predict that emotional states relate to cognitive processing states which, in turn, relate to decision-making outcomes. These two theories have slightly different predictions as to the specifics of these outcomes, however. Guided by components of the ATF and CEST, this project included two studies which had four main goals: first, to evaluate the impact of an indirect emotional manipulation (observed incivility; Study 1) and a direct emotional manipulation (fear appeal; Study 2) on juror decision-making; second, to evaluate the effectiveness of a mitigation tactic for a direct emotional manipulation (stealing thunder; Study 2) on juror decision-making; third, to examine the relationship between jurors’ emotional states, jurors’ cognitive processing states, and jurors’ subsequent decision-making (Studies 1 and 2), and; fourth, to examine whether jurors’ gender and trait cognitive processing interact with an emotional manipulation’s relationship to trial decision-making outcomes (Studies 1 and 2). Results from this line of research suggest that: 1) both indirect and direct emotional manipulations can relate to differences in juror decision-making, though direct emotional manipulations related to more punitive decision-making; 2) that stealing thunder did reduce the effectiveness of a direct emotional manipulations, but was limited in its ability to do so; 3) that jurors’ emotional states were one of the most consistent predictors of decision-making outcomes but jurors’ state cognitive processing was not significant at predicting any decision-making outcome; and 4) that three-way interactions were found such that, in certain circumstances, there were significant differences between jurors based on their experimental condition, gender, and trait cognitive processing. These studies suggest that knowing the emotional states of jurors is of the utmost importance for predicting jurors’ decisions.

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