Effects of Prejudicial Pretrial Publicity From Physical and Witness Evidence on Mock Jurors' Decision Making1

The effects of prejudicial pretrial publicity (PTP) from physical and witness evidence on decisions made by trained and untrained mock jurors were compared. Mock jurors viewed a videotaped rape trial and participated in jury deliberations. Training consisted of completion of a university course on psychology and law. As expected, physical evidence PTP produced more guilty votes than witness or no PTP. Both types of PTP influenced untrained mock jurors' punishment preferences and perceptions of satisfaction and fairness, whereas trained mock jurors' opinions on these measures were unaffected by PTP. Deliberations of trained mock juries were more task‐oriented and focused on relevant evidence and legal issues than that of their untrained peers. Limitations of this mock jury study were discussed.     

A Test of Voir Dire as a Remedy for the Prejudicial Effects of Pretrial Publicity1

The present experiment asked two questions: Does prejudicial pretrial publicity produce bias that may impair juror objectivity and, if it does, can extended, defense attorney-conducted voir dire (jury examination procedure) remedy its untoward effects? Subjects were 68 college undergraduates who had or had not read pretrial publicity one week before viewing a mock murder trial. Just prior to viewing the trial, subjects experienced either minimal or extended voir dire. Both pretrial publicity and voir dire produced significant main effects on subjects' perceptions of defendant culpability. Subjects exposed to pretrial publicity perceived the defendant as more culpable than subjects not exposed to pretrial publicity. Subjects who experienced extended voir dire perceived the defendant as less culpable than subjects who experienced minimal voir dire. The interaction between pretrial publicity and voir dire was nonsignificant, indicating that, contrary to our hypothesis, voir dire did not reduce the impact of pretrial publicity.     

The Role of Death Qualification in Jurors' Susceptibility to Pretrial Publicity1

Two hundred residents of Florida's 12^th Judicial Circuit completed questions measuring participants' level of death-penalty support, death-qualification status, knowledge of the facts surrounding an actual capital case, and attitudes toward the defendant in the aforementioned capital case. Results indicated that death-qualified participants were better able to correctly identify the defendant, recognize most of the factual details of the case, think that the defendant was guilty, and recommend the death penalty. In addition, death-qualified jurors were more likely to feel that the pretrial publicity surrounding the case would have minimal impact on the defendant's right to due process. Legal applications and implications are discussed.     

The Effect of Several Types of Pretrial Publicity on the Guilt Attributions of Simulated Jurors1

The experiment (N= 312) tested the effects of two types of pretrial publicity (PTP) on the guilt verdicts of simulated jurors. Heinous PTP was manipulated by varying the degree to which the lurid details of a rape-murder were presented to prospective jurors. Prejudgement PTP varied in the extent to which it implied that the defendant was the perpetrator or the rape-murder. As predicted, PTP which was high in either heinousness or prejudgment increased the females' tendency to conclude-after the trial evidence-that the defendant was guilty of the crime. The biasing effect of prejudgment PTP, however, was significant only among females categorized as being of low IQ. In contrast, neither dimension of PTF' significantly influenced the guilt verdicts of male jurors. Several possible explanations of the sex's differential vulnerability to PTP were proposed. In addition, evidence was obtained that female jurors may have been derogating the rape-murder victim and defensively minimizing the gravity of her fate, as a result of motivations to believe in a just world.     

Pretrial Publicity, the Timing of the Trial, and Mock Jurors' Decision Processes

Pretrial publicity and a temporal interval between the news and trial were explored for their effects upon the jury's deliberation process and verdict. Publicity (neutral, negative) and trial timing (immediate, delayed) were manipulated in a 2 × 2 design. Twenty 12-person simulated juries were exposed either to neutral or negative publicity and viewed a videotaped criminal trial immediately following news exposure or after a one-week delay between news and trial. Dichotomous pre-and postdeliberation verdicts, probability of guilt scales, trial recall, ratings of companion jurors, perceptions of attorneys, assessments of the news article, and recall of news facts were measured. Deliberations were tape recorded and content analyzed. Juries exposed to neutral and negative publicity did not significantly differ on conviction rate, deliberation length, or on quality of deliberations. Prejudicial news elicited counter remarks about the threatening nature of the publicity to the defendant's right to a fair trial. Individual juror data revealed that while the news manipulation did not significantly affect predeliberation verdicts or attention to trial events, negative news lowered jurors' probability estimates of guilt and facilitated their recall of news facts. A discriminant analysis predicting jury verdict indicated a lack of support for prior research showing damaging effects from prejudicial pretrial publicity. Findings are explored for methodological implications and for usefulness of theoretical notions of reactance, and "sleeper effects".     

The Relationship of Antifat Attitudes to Other Prejudicial and Gender‐Related Attitudes1

Overweight people in society face a number of obstacles. Negative attitudes toward overweight people contribute to this experience. This study examined the relationship of antifat attitudes to other prejudicial attitudes (e.g., racism, sexism, homophobia) and gender‐related attitudes. A total of 179 undergraduate participants completed measures of prejudicial attitudes, including antifat attitudes. Multiple regression analyses revealed that a combination of demographic and attitudinal variables predicted antifat attitudes. Antifat attitudes are stronger for men, Caucasians, and gender‐typed individuals; compared to women, African Americans, and androgynous individuals, respectively. After controlling for demographics, weight‐related variables, and social desirability, gender‐role egalitarianism, racism, and homophobia significantly correlated with antifat attitudes. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed regarding the importance of research in antifat and other prejudical attitudes.     

Factual and Affective/Evaluative Recall of Pretrial Publicity: Their Relative Influence on Juror Reasoning and Verdict in a Simulated Fraud Trial1

This study investigated the relationship between recall of real‐life pretrial publicity (PTP) in a high‐profile fraud case and subsequent reasoning about the trial evidence and verdict decisions. Tracking the reasoning and verdict judgments of 50 mock jurors during a video simulation of the trial material, the effect of factual recall of PTP was compared with recall indicating an affective or evaluative response from the PTP. Affective/evaluative recall, but not factual recall, was significantly associated with anti‐defendant reasoning and confidence in guilt. This effect was partially mediated by reasoning developed during the course of evidence presentation. The potentially prejudicial effect of affective/evaluative recall of PTP is discussed in terms of it activating an explanatory structure that frames evidence interpretation.     

Prejudicial Expressions in Defense of Adolescent Masculine Identities in Interaction

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the efficacy of a fine-grained, discursive-narrative approach in the investigation of the use of prejudicial expressions in defense of emerging masculine identities in conversational interaction. The processes of masculinity construction by an adolescent, Kev, who used a prejudicial expression to bring a pejorative ‘small’ story to a climax, are examined in detail. Although immediate interlocutor responses were subdued and subtle, an explicit delayed response is followed-up by a repositioning of Kev as an ‘undesirable other,’ to which Kev constructs another small story as a counter-response. It is argued such an interactional approach to prejudice illuminates actors’ social-action goals in real time and could lead to the formulation of more sensitive interventions.     

趋向于公共性的近代政治发展逻辑

政治是人类社会治理得以实现的重要手段,也是人类社会生活的重要内容,人类社会的发展在很大程度上也可以看作是通过政治发展而得以实现的.从中世纪后期开始,政治就出现了现代性的转型,这是政治获得普遍性的过程,开放性和公开性都是政治获得普遍性的途径.行政是政治的重要组织部分,政治的普遍性在行政这里是以公共性的问题出现的.行政的公共性需要在它的公开性中获得和得到保障.易言之,行政的公开性不足,就会招致人们对政府的不满和猜疑,公共舆论也就得以兴盛,如果行政具有了充分的公开性,公共舆论就会失去迷惑公众和煽情的功能.     

Prejudicial Joinder of Multiple Offenses: Relative Effects of Cognitive Processing and Criminal Schema

The relative contributions of cognitive processing of evidence and invocation of a criminal schema to the effects of joinder of offenses was investigated. One hundred forty simulated jurors either judged no evidence or judged evidence from one or two charges with the knowledge that the defendant had been charged with either one, two, three, or four offenses. The results showed that guilt evaluations, defendant character ratings, and measures of memory were influenced more by the number of charges judged than by the number of charges filed. Results from two path analyses suggest that the joinder effect is mediated by both cognitive factors and judgments about the defendant's character. Joinder appears to affect the cognitions generated about the cases, which in turn affect perceptions of the defendant and ultimately guilt assessment.     

论康德的"公共性"及其理论价值

在学术界对康德思想的讨论中,"公共性"问题却被忽略.而这恰恰是把握康德政治哲学特质的关键所在.在康德看来,任何政治判断都应该是一次"启蒙".而启蒙必须以公共性为中介.正是由于理性的公共使用,政治判断才有可能成为批判的、辩论的共识,进而才能获得深厚的民情民意基础.基于这种认识,康德颠覆了传统意义上的"公共性"并赋予其新的意涵,从而凸显了"公共性"的理论价值及其在康德思想体系中的转向意义.     

The Impact of Publicity and Subsequent Intervention in Recruitment Advertising on Job Searching Freshmen's Attraction to an Organization and Job Pursuit Intention

This study investigates the impacts of publicity exposure and recruiting advertisement sequence on freshmen's job search attraction to organizations and their job decisions. The current research uses a two‐factor experiment design, publicity (positive vs. negative) and recruiting ads (detailed vs. general), and recruits 415 undergraduates (seniors are the majority). Results indicate that negative publicity has greater effect on applicant attraction than positive publicity. The perceived truthfulness of sequential intervening recruiting advertisement rules the reaction to job ad, then further impacts on organizational attractiveness and job pursuit intention. With negative publicity exposure, higher specificity of recruiting advertisement has more significant mitigation effects than lower specificity. This work discusses implications and directions for future research.     

重叠共识的公共性与辩护性

罗尔斯的后期哲学例证了一种公共辩护(public justification)的方案。作为这一方案的核心环节,重叠共识不仅需要展示正义原则是如何得到辩护的,还需要使这种辩护满足公共性的要求。许多学者基于"双重视角"的区分来理解重叠共识,认为它是从理性个体有偏袒的私人立场出发来对正义原则的稳定性进行检验的。这种观点既不能真正解释重叠共识的辩护性,也无法满足公共性的要求。事实上,重叠共识最好被理解为合理公民们从集体的公共视角出发,尝试调和正义原则和各种合理整全学说的动态过程,其最终目标是确立一种辩护的政治,而非展示正义原则理论上的正确。     

Pretrial EEG coherence as a predictor of semantic priming effects

Twenty subjects were presented 240 randomized trials of a lexical decision task (LDT) while connected to a 16-electrode EEG montage. EEG data were acquired for 2 sec prior to the onset of each LDT trial. Alpha (9-13 Hz) coherence, alpha power, and 3- to 30-Hz power from five different combinations of EEG electrodes were used to predict semantic effects in the LDT trials. High pretrial coherence in the Right Hemisphere and Left Posterior-Parietal regions was associated with greater semantic facilitation (faster reaction times) in related-prime trials and greater semantic inhibition (slower reaction times) in unrelated-prime trials, relative to neutral-prime trials. No power variables were associated with semantic effects. Results support an information flow model of the functional significance of EEG coherence to cognitive processing.     

The Impact of Anonymity on Responses to Sensitive Questions1

To estimate frequencies of behaviors not carried out in public view, researchers generally must rely on self‐report data. We explored 2 factors expected to influence the decision to reveal: (a) privacy (anonymity vs. confidentiality) and (b) normalization (providing information so that a behavior is reputedly commonplace or rare). We administered a questionnaire to I55 undergraduates. For 79 respondents, we had corroborative information regarding a negative behavior: cheating. The privacy variable had an enormous impact; of those who had cheated, 25% acknowledged having done so under confidentiality, but 74% admitted the behavior under anonymity. Normalization had no effect. There were also dramatic differences between anonymity and confidentiality on some of our other questions, for which we did not have validation.     

The Psychological Impact of Domestic Violence on Spanish Women1

This study examined the psychological impact of partner violence on 240 Spanish women who were identified as abused, comparing them to a control group of 240 non‐abused women. The abused women suffered more long‐lasting anxiety and insomnia, severe depression, and somatic symptomatology, and also had lower self‐esteem than did the non‐abused women. The severity of the psychological abuse was correlated positively with the severity of the physical abuse, while the number of years of abuse endured correlated with the women's age and number of children. The most relevant variable for predicting severe depression, social dysfunction, anxiety and insomnia, and somatic symptoms was low self‐esteem.     

The Impact of Leadership Style on Global Management Practices1

A study was conducted to explore the impact of differences in leadership style on the practice of global leadership and management. Data were collected from 391 senior managers from a global organization and 1,701 of their direct reports, 358 straight-line supervisors, and 266 dotted-line supervisors. ANOVA results indicate that transformational leaders were rated significantly higher on all behaviors by their direct reports than were transactional leaders. Straight-line supervisors rated transformational leaders significantly higher on managing change- and relationship-management behaviors, whereas dotted-line supervisors rated transformational leaders higher on learning orientation. Finally, transformational leaders were significantly more self-aware (greater congruence in self vs. direct reports' average ratings) regarding the practice of these behaviors. implications for future research are discussed.     

Police-Public Interactions: The Impact of Conflict Resolution Tactics1

Following Hammock and Richardson (1992), it was hypothesized that a preference among some police officers for confrontational rather than conciliatory tactics when dealing with the public may serve to escalate a conflict and thereby explain the documented individual differences in reports of officer assaults. In order to test this possibility, preferred conflict tactics and officers' recent experiences of citizen compliance (and non-compliance) were measured for a sample of 115 English police and 48 Australian police. The results supported the hypothesized relationship by indicating a significant correlation between preferences for specific confrontational and coercive tactics and experiences of noncompliance from the public.     

The Impact of Perceived Justice on Contingent Value Judgments1

We asked citizens suffering from road traffic about their willingness to pay for the building of a new road bypassing their home village. Opponents of the project were asked what they would consider adequate compensation for accepting the bypass. The perceived fairness of a monetary exchange was the only predictor for the decision in principle to pay or to claim compensation, whereas the exact amount was determined by the expected utility provided by the bypass. Norms of equity or equality introduced in 2 experimental priming conditions biased respondents' willingness to pay. We suggest feeding back the results of contingent valuation surveys into the public debate, instead of interpreting them as a static measure of economic preferences.