| Popis: |
Eighty undergraduate males and females participated in a 2 by 2 factorial design to investigate the impact of a witness’s testimony on a simulated juror’s decision task as a function of the likableness of the witness. It was hypothesized that: (1) ratings of the defendant’s guilt would be influenced by the characteristics of the witnesses, that is, the testimony of a likable witness would have more impact than the testimony of a dislikable witness; and (2) ratings of a witness’s credibility would be similarly affected-a likable witness would be believed more than a dislikable witness. Results indicated support for the hypotheses. An additional unexpected finding was that the credibility ratings of the witnesses were also affected by the opposing witness’s description. The results were mainly discussed in terms of a reinforcement model of evaluative responses, although some limitations were pointed out. |
Full text from SpringerLink