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2 results

  • 32 - The Promise and the Pitfalls of Mock Jury Studies

  • from Part III - Applications
  • Edited by Kevin Tobia, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Jurisprudence
    Published online:
    17 May 2025
    Print publication:
    05 June 2025, pp 531-545

  • Summary

    This chapter discusses the promise and the pitfalls of conducting social psychological research on mock jurors. The tremendous potential of this methodology to shed light on the psychology of jury decision-making is only beginning to be tapped. We use two recent experiments on the psychology of character assessments as case studies to explore some of the necessary tradeoffs in this methodological design, and to showcase the importance of understanding the psychological underpinnings of our legal doctrines. However, future research must present more diverse stimuli that better reflect the racial and gender composition of parties in real trials. Recognizing how hard it can be to replicate complex psychological processes experimentally, we argue that in some cases we should switch the burden of proof – that is, near-universal psychological processes should be presumed to also occur in the courtroom.

  • ‘She called her partner – hence she is needy’: depressed patients show increased tendencies to make spontaneous trait inferences

  • B. Boecking, T. Barnhofer
  • Journal:
    Psychological Medicine / Volume 44 / Issue 14 / October 2014
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    07 April 2014, pp. 2995-3006
  • Background

    Interpersonal stress generation is an important maintaining factor in major depression; however, little is known about the psychological mechanisms that undermine interpersonal functioning. This study investigated the role of deficits in person perception to this regard.

    Method

    Depressed patients (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20) completed a false recognition task that measured participants' tendencies to make spontaneous trait inferences (STIs), that is to spontaneously ascribe personality traits to other people. Participants then reported interpersonal daily hassles for one week following the task.

    Results

    Tendencies to make STIs were significantly higher in depressed patients, particularly those with a history of childhood trauma. The degree to which participants made STIs was significantly related to depression severity, and predicted the occurrence of interpersonal daily hassles during follow-up across, but not within groups.

    Conclusions

    The results suggest that depressed patients show characteristic biases in person perception that may contribute to the generation of interpersonal stress.