Reaching a Verdict
Court
At start of trial
Minimum
number
Majorities allowed
Crown Court
12
9
11-1, 10-2, 10-1, 9-1
High Court
12
9
11-1, 10-2, 10-1, 9-1
County Court
8
7
7-1
Coroner's
Court
between 7 and
11
—
Minority no more than 2
Stages in decision-making
1. What are the key points during a trial where the jury
can be heavily influenced:
2. Some of the influences include size of the jury, cognitive
processes, pre-trial publicity, ethnicity, gender,
individual differences, leadership and the social
processes which influence decision making such as
majority and minority influence.
These can be divided up into three groups of factors:
Stages in Decision making
Hastie et al (1983)
• Jury discussions go through the following stages:
Orientation Period
Open Confrontation
Reconciliation
Stages in Decision making
Hastie et al (1983)
• What outside factors might affect a jury’s decision making?
• Do you think confrontation is always necessary in order to come to a
verdict?
• Is locking people in a room until they come to a unanimous (common)
decision a good idea?
• What’s a problem with this theory?
Problem
• At the end of a trial the jury return to the courtroom to give their verdict.
How do they reach that verdict?
• The problem for researchers is that juries are sworn to secrecy about the
deliberations, which take place behind closed doors, even after the trial,
they are prohibited by law from discussing it.
• This means that researchers have to rely on mock trials and
reconstructions to investigate jury behaviour.
• Why do people conform to the majority?
• Why do people conform to the minority?
Minority Influence
• Minority influence occurs when a minority rejects the established norm of
the majority of group members and gets the majority to move to the
position of the minority.
• Minority influence is the result of ‘INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE’ –
the desire to be right.
» What characteristics are displayed when someone has the desire to be right?
• In contrast, majority influence might be due to public compliance –
NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE – this is just passively going along with
the majority to fit in or it might be due to the desire to be right thus
accepting the majority view.
Minority Influence
• Moscovici carried out a set of experiments to test the minority influence.
• He got groups of six participants (four naïve & 2 stooges) to make colour
perception judgements about a series of slides which were all blue.
• In the first condition his stooges declared the slides were all green.
• In the second condition two-thirds of the slides were declared green.
• In the final condition, the stooges were completely inconsistent in their
choices.
• Results showed that was a 32% conformity only in the first condition.
• Why?
Minority Influence
• Moscovici believes that it is the consistency of the minority which is
persuasive.
• Consistency creates an impression of certainty and confidence, and its
uncompromising attitude includes everyone else to take it seriously – in
this case people were persuaded to see blue as green.
Evaluation of Majority Influence
Asch
• Ethics:
• Deception:
• Distress:
Evaluation of Majority Influence
Asch
• What does this study tell us about everyday life?
Evaluation of Majority Influence
Asch
• Can the study be generalised?
Evaluation of Majority Influence
Asch
• How is the study linked to situational/individual explanations of
behaviour?
Evaluation of Minority Influence
Nemeth & Wachtler: Investigation of the influence of perceived autonomy on
minority influence
• Sample & Generalisability:
• Usefulness:
Evaluation of Minority Influence
Nemeth & Wachtler: Investigation of the influence of perceived autonomy on
minority influence
• Ethics: