| Autor: |
Pryor, Bert, Taylor, K. Phillip, Buchanan, Raymond W., Strawn, David U. |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Communication Monographs; Mar1980, Vol. 47 Issue 1, p68-76, 9p |
| Abstrakt: |
As part of an ongoing effort to improve the comprehensibility of standard jury instructions in Florida, juror predispositions toward laws were examined as a potential contributor to misperceptions about the law. Based upon the affective-cognitive consistency research of McGuire and of Rosenberg we predicted that statements about the law which subjects believed to be inaccurate, whether these statements were actually correct or not. Analysis of variance was used to compare juror attitudes toward selected and unselected alternatives on a comprehension test of jury instructions. The results of Experiment I supported the hypothesis that affective-cognitive distortion is present for jurors who have not received the judge's presentation of the instructions. The data of Experiment II indicated that this affective-cognitive distortion persisted even after subjects had been exposed to a videotaped presentation of the standard instructions. The instructions, delivered by a Florida Circuit Court Judge, contained all the correct statments of the law covered in the comprehension test. It was suggested that message strategies designed to overcome negative predispositions, as well as stylistic improvements aimed at increasing comprehensibility, are needed to reduce misperceptions and faulty applications of the law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
| Externí odkaz: |
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