Effects of Emotional Testimony and Gruesome Photographs on Mock Jurors' Decisions and Negative Emotions

Abstract

The present study investigated the combined and individual effects of emotional testimony and gruesome photographs on mock jurors’ verdict decisions and emotions. Participants (n = 127) were provided with a murder trial transcript and then rendered verdicts in a 2 (emotional testimony: present, absent) × 2 (gruesome photographs: present, absent) between-groups design. They also rated their negative emotions before and after the transcript. The results indicated a combined effect of emotional testimony and gruesome photographs on verdict decisions: the emotional testimony alone had a significant effect on guilty verdicts while the gruesome photographs had only a marginally significant effect. Negative emotions were aroused by the emotional testimony when the gruesome photographs were not presented. The impact of emotional evidence on verdict decisions is discussed.

Key words:

• emotional testimony
• gruesome photographs
• juror
• negative emotion
• verdict decision

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In the Saiban-in system, three professional judges and six laypersons participate in a trial and deliberate together to render a verdict. When a guilty verdict is rendered, they also determine the sentence together.

2. Code of Criminal Procedure Article 292-2 (9): ‘The statement … may not be used as evidence for fact finding of the crime’.

3. Confidence in the verdict decision was rated from 1 (absolutely not guilty) to 10 (absolutely guilty). Therefore, participants who rendered a not guilty verdict should rate between 1 and 5. In order to analyze the confidence rate of all participants together, reverse coding was adopted, in which 1 was coded to 10, 2 to 9, and so on.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Graduate School Doctorate Student Aid Program 2009, Keio University.