153 posts · 101,516 views
Doug Keene has a doctoral degree in Psychology and has worked as a trial consultant for the past 15 years. He is Past President of the American Society of Trial Consultants and has a full-service trial consulting practice. Twitter: @keenetrial
The Jury Room
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- May 22, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 28 views
“Ethnic-sounding first names” and getting the job
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Shuki. Soukias. Raheem. Samir. Jamal. Lakisha. Atholl. Tyronne. Magestic. Did you know that something as simple as a first name makes the difference between whether you even get the interview? Last weekend we were doing a focus group and one of the mock jurors had a very unique first name. One of a kind. She [...]
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Is there a relationship between age and ethnic prejudice?
Attractiveness and being fired for poor performance
Everyday racism: A comparison of African American and Asia........ Read more »
Cotton, J., O'Neill, B., & Griffin, A. (2008) The “name game”: affective and hiring reactions to first names. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(1), 18-39. DOI: 10.1108/02683940810849648
- May 17, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 50 views
Is there a relationship between age and ethnic prejudice?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
As you have probably noticed, we read a lot of research here at The Jury Room. We are looking for nuggets of knowledge or pearls of wisdom we can apply to our day-to-day practice of litigation advocacy. If you’ve read our work on generations you likely already know there is a relationship between age and [...]
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Pretrial publicity & bias: Take a look at the age of your jurors!
Politics and prejudice? Nope. It’s about ideology!
Polls and Prejudice
... Read more »
Franssen, V., Dhont, K., & Hiel, A. (2013) Age-Related Differences in Ethnic Prejudice: Evidence of the Mediating Effect of Right-Wing Attitudes. Journal of Community , 23(3), 252-257. DOI: 10.1002/casp.2109
- May 13, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 32 views
Maybe you really should use PowerPoint in court!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
PowerPoint is often maligned but new research shows a courtroom PowerPoint effect that is nothing to dismiss! When Plaintiff attorneys used PowerPoint slides, mock jurors thought the Defendant was more liable for the alleged behavior. When the Defense used PowerPoint slides, the Defendant was less liable in the eyes of the mock jurors. Seriously? Because [...]
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Patent litigation and wonder in East Texas
Chicago attorney explains to Court: “Personally, I like large breasts.̶........ Read more »
Park, J., & Feigenson, N. (2013) Effects of a Visual Technology on Mock Juror Decision Making. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27(2), 235-246. DOI: 10.1002/acp.2900
- May 8, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 34 views
Eyewitness testimony: It’s how you talk and who I think you are
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We know about the problems with inaccuracy in eyewitness testimony. But here’s a study showing bias in how listeners assess the eyewitnesses themselves. Yes, you read that correctly. It isn’t about the content of the eyewitness’ testimony. Oh no. It is instead about how the eyewitness talks and how the listener assesses their social standing. [...]
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Helping jurors ‘see’ what eye witnesses said they saw
When “I don’t know” improves the accuracy of eye-witness identi........ Read more »
Jules, S., & McQuiston, D. (2013) Speech style and occupational status affect assessments of eyewitness testimony. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(4), 741-748. DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12002
- May 3, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 77 views
Facial disfigurement is too disturbing, or why I won’t hire you
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Roger Ebert was a standout when it comes to facial disfigurement. We knew him before it happened. We applauded his bravery and courage in re-emerging publicly after disfiguring cancer surgery. Yet we also stared in disbelief when we saw him. His disfigurement was such that it gave the sense he was always smiling. That probably helped [...]
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When facial disfiguration disgusts
Judging books by their cover: More on facial clues to character
Proof we don’t hire the most qualified c........ Read more »
Stone, A., & Wright, T. (2013) When your face doesn't fit: employment discrimination against people with facial disfigurements. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(3), 515-526. DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2013.01032.x
- April 29, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 69 views
Look into my eyes…..
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
How often have you read that “the eyes are the window to the soul”? What that means, say proponents, is that all you have to do to know how someone feels is to look into their eyes and you know all. New research would say that only holds true (at least if you are a [...]
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We pray with closed eyes
The eyes of [not just] Texas are upon you…
“I can look into his eyes and just tell he is lying”
... Read more »
Schiffer B, Pawliczek C, Müller BW, Gizewski ER, & Walter H. (2013) Why don't men understand women? Altered neural networks for reading the language of male and female eyes. PloS one, 8(4). PMID: 23593185
- April 24, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 82 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: The Sunshine Samaritan Effect
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
If you want to prevail at trial, would it be useful to be able to control the weather? New research would say it depends on whether you want the jurors to help the plaintiff or defendant or not. Seriously? Seriously. It’s called the Sunshine Samaritan Effect. “Your Honor, I’d like to recess until the sun [...]
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The “hoodie effect”: A domestic variant of the turban effect
The hypercorrection effect: Correcting misinformation and false beliefs
Simple Jury Persuasio........ Read more »
Guéguen, N., & Lamy, L. (2013) Weather and Helping: Additional Evidence of the Effect of the Sunshine Samaritan. The Journal of Social Psychology, 153(2), 123-126. DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2012.720618
- April 17, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 67 views
The seductive allure of ‘seductive allure’
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Sometimes academics make the most of a clever turn of phrase. But this post isn’t about sex and it isn’t about Marilyn Monroe. Instead, it is about everyone’s favorite other topic: the CSI effect. Am I right? That is your favorite other topic, isn’t it? Even though there have been growing indications that fear of [...]
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Redux: Bye-bye CSI?
The dilemma of the ‘Expert’ Witness
Confused about brain scans? Welcome to the club!
... Read more »
Farah, M., & Hook, C. (2013) The Seductive Allure of "Seductive Allure". Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(1), 88-90. DOI: 10.1177/1745691612469035
- April 15, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 56 views
Which jurors most “feel” your client’s pain?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
This is an intriguing question with a pretty straightforward answer. But if you are assuming the answer is “women”, you are only partially correct. Researchers from Michigan, New York and North Carolina investigated the relationship of age and empathy in three large samples of American adults who ranged in age from 18 to 90 years. [...]
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Does your capital client “look deathworthy”?
Pretrial publicity & bias: Take a look at the age of your jurors!
Should you ask your o........ Read more »
O'Brien E, Konrath SH, Grühn D, & Hagen AL. (2013) Empathic concern and perspective taking: linear and quadratic effects of age across the adult life span. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(2), 168-75. PMID: 22865821
- April 10, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 78 views
The dilemma of the ‘Expert’ Witness
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
In any case that includes a dispute over professional standards, science, technology, or an area of specialized knowledge, expert witnesses are going to be involved. Selecting someone who will be viewed as knowledgeable and credible to jurors is often difficult. You obviously are going to choose someone who knows the content at issue, but that’s [...]
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Expert witness influence: Interrogation tactics and false confessions
What happens when a juror agrees [or disagrees] with your ........ Read more »
Schauer, F., & Spellman, B. (2013) Is Expert Evidence Really Different?. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2210397
- April 1, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 139 views
Worried about recidivism? Scan that felon’s brain!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Remember the movie the Minority Report? In that movie, you can be charged with a crime prior to committing it. Because they can see the future. Well, now–so can we! At least according to some neuroscientists. And all it takes is a brain scan. How tidy! According to the scientists, those felons who show low activity [...]
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“Acquired pedophilia”: His brain made him do it
Confused about brain scans? Welcome to the club!
And the jury says: “His brain really DID make him d........ Read more »
Aharoni E, Vincent GM, Harenski CL, Calhoun VD, Sinnott-Armstrong W, Gazzaniga MS, & Kiehl KA. (2013) Neuroprediction of future rearrest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 23536303
- March 27, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 136 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Is that foreigner lying up there on the witness stand?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
None of us like to be lied to and we hunt for indicators of deception in the behavior of others. A dilemma occurs in our assessments of witnesses from other cultures–since social norms are culture-specific. We observe the behavior of others and make judgments as to whether they are lying according to our sense of whether [...]
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Simple Jury Persuasion: Stand up straight but avoid gesturing with your hands in front of the jury!
Simple Jury Persuasion: “That was the witness ........ Read more »
Castillo, P., & Mallard, D. (2011) Preventing Cross-Cultural Bias in Deception Judgments: The Role of Expectancies About Nonverbal Behavior. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(6), 967-978. DOI: 10.1177/0022022111415672
- March 22, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 92 views
Should I pretend to be angry to get a better offer?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Parties in negotiation are often eager to gain an edge in the maneuvering. Plans sometimes are made to walk away in anger as a strategy to elicit cooperation from the other side. But is that a good idea? Researchers say faking anger is not a wise move, but expressing actually felt anger may help you [...]
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Negotiations: Starting high and ending with nothing
Twelve (not so) angry men: Increasing participation in jury decision-making
“I want to cry and I don’t know why!”
... Read more »
Côté, S., Hideg, I., & van Kleef, G. (2013) The consequences of faking anger in negotiations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(3), 453-463. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.12.015
- March 18, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 102 views
Heat of the moment? Try being a “fly on the wall”
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Flies are annoying, dirty and often disgusting creatures. They ruin picnic foods, they buzz around our quiet bedrooms as we try to sleep, and sometimes they have the nerve to land on our bodies. That is the actual fly. In this post, we are discussing the metaphorical fly. When you find yourself caught up in [...]
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Can you really sort out the liars from the truth tellers?
Want to be more likeable? Blink!
When good leadership goes wrong
... Read more »
Mischkowski, D., Kross, E., & Bushman, B. (2012) Flies on the wall are less aggressive: Self-distancing “in the heat of the moment” reduces aggressive thoughts, angry feelings and aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 1187-1191. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.03.012
- March 8, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 161 views
“It was ‘a man’s work’ and I just didn’t like working with those incompetent women….”
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Research shows, even though it’s now 2013, that stereotypes of women as passive, not ambitious, and not energetic continue to abound. Researchers wondered whether the proportion of women in a mixed-gender group doing a male-stereotyped task would affect gender-related evaluations of the group process. Researchers recruited 110 students (71 women, 39 men) enrolled in a [...]
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Everyday racism at work: Hope for African American Women?
If you’re a man, you don’t just get mad, yo........ Read more »
West, T., Heilman, M., Gullett, L., Moss-Racusin, C., & Magee, J. (2012) Building blocks of bias: Gender composition predicts male and female group members’ evaluations of each other and the group. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 1209-1212. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.04.012
- March 4, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 169 views
Macbeth, a joystick and the “cannibal cop” case
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
The cannibal cop case is now in full swing and the testimony gets more grisly and nasty every day. From the “cannibal cop’s” wife’s testimony to fantasies of barbecuing a female friend, to the idea that “white girls seem the most appetizing”, the case is shocking, disturbing, and, to most of us, disgusting. We wrote about this case [...]
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The “cannibal cop” case: Can a SJQ be homoerotic?
Pontius Pilate, Lady Macbeth and Embodied Cognition
Case Strategy Tip: Do y........ Read more »
Gollwitzer, M., & Melzer, A. (2012) Macbeth and the Joystick: Evidence for moral cleansing after playing a violent video game. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(6), 1356-1360. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.07.001
- February 22, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 200 views
Wide-faced men are not just liars and cheaters, they’re prejudiced too!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Model Cameron Russell has been making the rounds of various talk shows saying she is a successful underwear model not because she is particularly gifted or talented, but because she won a “genetic lottery”. Well, we bet wide-faced men are wishing they had won a genetic lottery because things are just not looking good for [...]
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“Wide-faced men are going to lie and cheat”
New research on men: What do we know now?
Who knew we’d be such grumpy (but NOT old!) men and women?
........ Read more »
Hehman E, Leitner JB, Deegan MP, & Gaertner SL. (2013) Facial Structure Is Indicative of Explicit Support for Prejudicial Beliefs. Psychological Science. PMID: 23389425
- February 18, 2013
- 10:37 AM
- 197 views
Negotiating Salary 101 for Women Only
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We’ve written before about salary negotiations and the discrepancy in pay for men and women. One of the issues consistently identified in the research is that men ask for more money and women often don’t. So researchers wondered (they are always so very curious) if women could begin to narrow the gender gap in salary [...]
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Anchoring effects and your salary negotiations
Female bosses can lower a man’s pay & prestige
Everyday racism at work: Hope for African American Wom........ Read more »
Bowles, H., & Babcock, L. (2012) How Can Women Escape the Compensation Negotiation Dilemma? Relational Accounts Are One Answer. Psychology of Women Quarterly. DOI: 10.1177/0361684312455524
- February 13, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 125 views
Simple Jury Persuasion: Teaching Jurors to Better Assess Eyewitness Testimony
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
While we know that eyewitness testimony is often suspect, it can be useful to help jurors know how to assess the validity of eyewitness testimony for themselves. You might be interested in a new study identifying a simple strategy for teaching them just that. The authors point out that eyewitness testimony is frequently the primary [...]
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Simple Jury Persuasion: Telling jurors where to look
Simple Jury Persuasion: If you tell us why, we are more likely to believe
Simple Jury Persu........ Read more »
Pawlenko, NB, Safer, MA, Wise, RA, & Holfeld, B. (2012) A teaching aid for improving jurors’ assessment of eyewitness accuracy. Applied Cognitive Psychology. info:/
- February 8, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 227 views
The “cannibal cop” case: Can a SJQ be homoerotic?
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
A few months ago we blogged about the “cannibal cop” NYPD officer and wondered why that story wasn’t attracting more press. The case has given rise to a proposed supplemental juror questionnaire [SJQ] that is unlike anything we’ve seen in twenty years of trial consulting. Apparently judges haven’t seen the likes of this either. Included [...]
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Case Strategy Tip: Do you want your jury to think about their verdict or not?
Bev Kearney: Is it because I’m female, African-Am........ Read more »
Yamagami, DS. (2000) Prosecuting cyber-pedophiles: How can intent be shown in the virtual world in light of the fantasy defense?. Santa Clara Law Review. info:/
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