Deciding the Fate of Others: The Cognitive Underpinnings of Racially Biased Juror Decision Making

ABSTRACT

In criminal law, jurors are supposed to ignore defendant race when considering factual matters of culpability. However, when judging the merits of a criminal case, jurors’ ability (or inability) to avoid bias may affect verdicts. Fact-based decision making expend cognitive resources, while heuristic-based decisions (e.g., using criminal stereotypes) conserve resources. Here, we investigated whether differences in cognitive resources and prejudice attitudes about Blacks influenced trial outcomes. We tested the impact of working memory capacity (WMC), cognitive load, prejudice, and target race (Black, White) on penalties ascribed to fictional criminal defendants in ambiguous-fact cases. Results showed that when “loaded,” prejudiced-low-WMC persons supported guilty verdicts with higher confidence more often for Black than White defendants. Conversely, regardless of WMC or prejudice attitude, participants penalized White defendants more often when not loaded. We suggest that cognitive resources and prejudice attitude influence fact-based decisions. Links to juror judgments and potential trial outcomes are discussed.

Keywords:

• cognitive resources
• decision making
• race
• stereotype

Acknowledgments

We thank Samuel Sommers, Christian Meissner and Steve Goldinger for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

1. Stereotypicality refers to the subjective association of specific facial features, (e.g., broad nose, thick lips) with a particular racial group (Eberhardt, Davies, Purdie-Vaughns, & Johnson, 2006).