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The present study examined the effects of demonstrative evidence on mock jurors' pain and suffering damage awards and the psychological processes underlying those effects. Participants read excerpts from the plaintiff's and his expert's testimony and saw photo simulations of the plaintiff's visual impairments that they were instructed to treat either as substantive evidence or illustrative aids, or saw no simulations. Participants who saw demonstrative evidence of the plaintiff's impaired vision awarded him significantly more pain and suffering damages than did those who did not. The effect was mediated by the judged severity of the plaintiff's suffering: Those who saw demonstrative evidence awarded more damages in part because they judged the plaintiff's suffering from his visual impairments to be more severe than those who did not. Participants differentiated between substantive and illustrative demonstrative evidence in several respects but in two of three studies did not award significantly different amounts of damages.

This study examined the effects of prosecution and defense opening statements describing video evidence on mock jurors' perceptions and interpretations of that evidence and ultimate judgments. Materials were based on an actual case in which a police officer was tried for murder after fatally shooting an unarmed driver at a traffic stop. The incident was recorded on the officer's body‐worn camera. Participants exposed to the prosecution's verbal framing of the video judged the officer to be significantly more responsible for the driver's death than those not so exposed. Partisan verbal framing also significantly affected what participants reported having seen, in some instances making them more likely to agree with factual statements that were unambiguously false. The effect of verbal framing on participants' responsibility judgments was mediated by its effect on their inferential judgments and emotional responses. Attitudes toward police also significantly affected responsibility judgments, inferential judgments, and emotional responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00520.x Byline: Jaihyun Park (*), Eva Malachi (*), Orit Sternin (*), Roni Tevet (*) Abstract: Contemporary theories of prejudice suggest that racism still exists in society, but is expressed in subtle and justifiable manners. Employing such theoretical frameworks, the present study examined subtle ways in which social category information is used differentially in personnel decisions. Participants (managers or undergraduates) were presented with background information and a resume (with a typical Muslim or European American name) for a hypothetical job applicant. After reviewing the resumes, participants judged the applicant on hirability, salary assignment, and other job-related characteristics. Results showed that the Muslim applicant, relative to the American, was unfavorably judged in salary assignment and job-related characteristics in the presence of negative information. Both managers and undergraduates exhibited the same bias. Implications of the findings are discussed. Author Affiliation: (*)Baruch College-City University of New York Article note: (2) Jaihyun Park, Baruch College-CUNY, Psychology Department, Box B-8215, 55 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010. E-mail: jaihyun.park@baruch.cuny.edu

Two meta-analyses were conducted to examine the magnitude of the interaction between arousal and retention delay on various types of memory, e.g., verbal, visual, etc., as initially reported by Kleinsmith and Kaplan in 1963 and 1964. Results of the first meta-analysis (29 studies, N = 2,637) indicated that the interaction was robust (d = .779), with low arousal leading to better immediate memory than high arousal, whereas high arousal led to better delayed memory than low arousal. Incorporating additional studies, a subsequent meta-analysis (48 studies, N = 3,143) on the effect of arousal on memory, taking retention delay as a moderator, provided further support. At a 2-min. delay, low arousal led to better immediate memory than high arousal (d = -.459). This difference decreased at a 20-min. delay (d = .106), when directions of high and low arousal effects on memory appeared to reverse. At longer delays than 20 min., high arousal led to better delayed memory than low arousal (ds = .753, .219, and .472, for delays of 45-min., 1-day, and more than 1 day, respectively).

This experiment studied the role of emotional arousal in mediating the impact of plaintiff and defendant blameworthiness and accident severity on comparative negligence judgments. Participants (N = 214) read descriptions and viewed photographs of 2 accident cases varying in outcome severity, victim blameworthiness, and defendant blameworthiness. Participants then rated their emotional responses to the cases, apportioned fault between the parties, and assessed gross and discounted damages. Blameworthiness and outcome severity affected apportionment of fault, and the effects of blameworthiness and severity appeared to be mediated by the arousal of anger toward the parties. Damage awards were determined primarily by the severity of the accident and were not mediated by emotional arousal.

Two studies explored the effects of lawyers' use of PowerPoint on liability judgments in a case involving statistical evidence. Participants (Study 1, N = 192; Study 2A, N = 180; Study 2B, N = 189) watched videotaped opening statements for plaintiffs and defendant. In general, defendant's responsibility was judged to be greater when plaintiffs used PowerPoint slides than when they did not and less when defendant used PowerPoint slides than when it did not. Furthermore, PowerPoint's impact was greatest when its use was unequal. PowerPoint enhanced persuasion partly through central and partly through peripheral processing. In general, each party's use of PowerPoint increased participants' recall of that party's evidence, which in turn increased defendant's judged responsibility (when plaintiffs used PowerPoint) or reduced it (when defendants used PowerPoint), indicative of central processing. PowerPoint also functioned as a peripheral cue, influencing participants' judgments of defendant's responsibility by affecting their perceptions of the respective attorneys. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a greater degree of personal obesity is associated with weaker negativity toward overweight people on both explicit (i.e., self-report) and implicit (i.e., indirect behavioral) measures, overweight people still prefer thin people on average. We investigated whether the national and cultural context – particularly the national prevalence of obesity – predicts attitudes toward overweight people independent of personal identity and weight status. Data were collected from a total sample of 338,121 citizens from 71 nations in 22 different languages on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/) between May 2006 and October 2010. We investigated the relationship of the explicit and implicit weight bias with the obesity both at the individual (i.e., across individuals) and national (i.e., across nations) level. Explicit weight bias was assessed with self-reported preference between overweight and thin people; implicit weight bias was measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The national estimates of explicit and implicit weight bias were obtained by averaging the individual scores for each nation. Obesity at the individual level was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) scores, whereas obesity at the national level was defined as three national weight indicators (national BMI, national percentage of overweight and underweight people) obtained from publicly available databases. Across individuals, greater degree of obesity was associated with weaker implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. Across nations, in contrast, a greater degree of national obesity was associated with stronger implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. This result indicates a different relationship between obesity and implicit weight bias at the individual and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]