Skip to main content
Article
Negative and Positive Pretrial Publicity Affect Juror Memory and Decision Making
Journal of Experimental Psychology
  • Christine L. Ruva, University of South Florida
  • Cathy McEvoy, University of South Florida
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2008
Keywords
  • juror decision-making,
  • juror bias,
  • juror memory,
  • source memory,
  • pretrial publicity
Abstract

The experiment examined the effects of exposure to pretrial publicity (PTP) and delay on juror memory and decision-making. Mock jurors read news articles containing negative PTP, positive PTP, or unrelated articles. Five days later, they viewed a videotaped murder trial, after which they made decisions about guilt. Finally, all participants independently attributed specific information as having been presented during the trial or in the news articles. Half of the jurors rendered their verdicts and completed the source-memory test immediately after the trial, while the other half did so after a 2-day delay. Exposure to PTP significantly affected guilty verdicts, perceptions of defendant credibility, juror ratings of the prosecuting and defense attorneys, and misattributions of PTP as having been presented as trial evidence. Similar effects were obtained for negative and positive PTP. Delay significantly increased source-memory errors but did not influence guilt ratings. Defendant's credibility and juror ratings of prosecuting and defense attorneys significantly mediated the effect of PTP on guilt ratings.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-898X.14.3.226
Citation / Publisher Attribution

Journal of Experimental Psychology, v. 14, issue 3, p. 226-235

Citation Information
Christine L. Ruva and Cathy McEvoy. "Negative and Positive Pretrial Publicity Affect Juror Memory and Decision Making" Journal of Experimental Psychology Vol. 14 Iss. 3 (2008) p. 226 - 235
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/christine-ruva/6/