The Effect of Graphics and Color on Evaluations in a Legal Setting

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Division I Poster Session

Abstract

Two-hundred and fifty undergraduate students were presented a legal case perspective describing a defendant positively or negatively and were accompanied by one of five graphics, or no graphic. The graphics featured manipulations of visual features, including salience and hue. Learners were presented either an achromatic graphic, chromatic red graphic or chromatic green graphic representing the success or failure of the company. We measured evaluations of the company’s positive and negative characteristics, and doubt about the company’s guilt. Our results indicated no difference on evaluations and judgments when an achromatic graph was presented, but that both salience and hue influenced evaluations—specifically, that red led to negative evaluations, except for when it was accompanied by a positive case perspective.

Authors

• Neil Jacobson, California State University - Chico

• Neil H. Schwartz, California State University - Chico

• Marie Lippmann, Dresden University of Technology