Year: 2001
Type: dissertation
Abstract: College students judged the testimony in a civil trial in which a childhood memory had been recovered after 20 years. Participants were 108 students (n = 79 female and 29 male) enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses. The design was a 2 X 2 X 2 between subjects factorial design which investigated effects of the type of incident (sexual abuse/hit-and-run), how the memory was recovered (therapy/wedding), and type of testimony (assertive/emotional). The study determined that mock jurors were likely to perceive the plaintiff's testimony as credible when she testified she was sexually abused as a child rather than when she was a victim of a hit-and-run accident. The results also indicated that testimonial demeanor had a significant effect on mock jurors' perception of the plaintiff's credibility and that if a female victim testifies with a nonemotional stereotypical masculine demeanor, the jurors may react in a negative manner.
Author: Donna Marie Vigilante
Institution: University of North Florida
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1508824637