Article1999

The effects of pretrial publicity on juror verdicts: A meta-analytic review.

Nancy Mehrkens Steblay · Jasmina Besirevic · Solomon M. Fulero · Belia Jimenez-Lorente

180 citations0/0 files storedLaw and Human Behavior

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Jury Decision Making Processes Legal processes and jurisprudence Social and Intergroup Psychology

Abstract

The effect of pretrial publicity (PTP) on juror verdicts was examined through a meta-analysis of 44 empirical tests representing 5,755 subjects. In support of the hypothesis, subjects exposed to negative PTP were significantly more likely to judge the defendant guilty compared to subjects exposed to less or no negative PTP. Greater effect sizes were produced in studies which included a pretrial verdict assessment, use of the potential juror pool as subjects, multiple points of negative information included in the PTP, real PTP, crimes of murder, sexual abuse, or drugs, and greater length of time between PTP exposure and judgment. The effect was attenuated with student subjects, use of general rather than specific PTP information, certain types of PTP content, a post-trial predeliberation verdict, and specific types of crimes. Implications of these results are discussed, along with possible mechanisms that underlie the PTP effect.

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References

1969The Handbook of Social Psychology 1994Meta-Analytic Procedures for Social Research.1997ATTITUDES AND ATTITUDE CHANGE 1992Explaining the evidence: Tests of the Story Model for juror decision making.1986Evidence evaluation in complex decision making.1988Explanation-based decision making: Effects of memory structure on judgment.1983Inside the jury 1990Pretrial publicity, judicial remedies, and jury bias.

Cited by

2001Eyewitness accuracy rates in sequential and simultaneous lineup presentations: A meta-analytic comparison.2000Psychology and Law: Truthfulness, Accuracy and Credibility 2006The Impact on Juror Verdicts of Judicial Instruction to Disregard Inadmissible Evidence: A Meta-Analysis.2023Toward Parsimony in Bias Research: A Proposed Common Framework of Belief-Consistent Information Processing for a Set of Biases 2000Understanding the limits of limiting instructions: Social psychological explanations for the failures of instructions to disregard pretrial publicity and other inadmissible evidence.2004

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