Biased Jurors: An Implicit Association Test of Prosecutorial and Defense Biases in the Jury Pool

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

Despite the underlying notion of impartiality, research has established that jurors bring biases and opinions into the courtroom. Prior studies have further found that jurors’ perceptions of attorneys may influence trial outcomes. In an effort to continue the psycho-legal debate surrounding the lack of impartiality in voir dire, this paper will address how implicit biases toward legal actors may influence evidence interpretation throughout a trial. Using an Implicit Association Test, this paper intends to uncover pro-prosecution or pro-defense preexisting biases in jury-eligible participants recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participant baseline rates of bias will be established from the IAT and can be compared to the predictive capacities of demographics, political affiliations and death penalty opinions. Participants will then be randomly presented a manipulated case vignette that will assess how participants evaluate evidence and arrive at a trial verdict. Ideally, this will demonstrate that IATs are more predictive of jurors’ biases and their performance if selected to serve on a jury in comparison to the predictive capacity of juror characteristics alone. The results of this project will shed light on the role of unconscious biases toward legal actors and how such biases may influence evidence interpretation and ultimately trial outcomes.

Author

• Taylor Kidd, University of California, Irvine