Racial Bias in Decisions Made by Mock Jurors Evaluating a Case of Sexual Harassment

White (N = 161) and Black (N = 152) college students served as mock jurors in a simulated civil case in which a female plaintiff accused a male defendant of sexual harassment. The authors experimentally manipulated the race (Black or White) of the litigants and asked the mock jurors to decide whethe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of social psychology 2002-10, Vol.142 (5), p.587-600
Main Authors: Wuensch, Karl L., Campbell, Matthew W., Kesler, Frederick C., Moore, Charles H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
African Americans
Attitude towards mental illness
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Black college students
Black White Differences
College Students
Crime
Criminal records
Criminals
Decision Making
Employment
European Continental Ancestry Group
Experiments
Female
Females
Gender
Humans
Interpersonal Attraction
Judgment
Juries
Jurisprudence
Laboratories
Male
Males
Medical sciences
Meta Analysis
mock-jury decisions
Murders & murder attempts
Prejudice
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Race
Racial Bias
racial bias. White college students
Racism
Rape
Researchers
Resistance (Psychology)
Sentences
Sex Differences
Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment - legislation & jurisprudence
Social Desirability
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Southern States
Testimony
Trials
Variables
Victims of Crime
White people
White Students
Whites
Witnesses
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Description
Summary:White (N = 161) and Black (N = 152) college students served as mock jurors in a simulated civil case in which a female plaintiff accused a male defendant of sexual harassment. The authors experimentally manipulated the race (Black or White) of the litigants and asked the mock jurors to decide whether the defendant was guilty; to rate the certainty of their belief in the defendant's guilt; and, when they judged the defendant guilty, to recommend an award to the plaintiff. Mock jurors of both races tended to favor litigants of their own race and their own gender. Racial bias was highest among White male jurors and lowest among White female jurors.
ISSN:0022-4545
1940-1183
DOI:10.1080/00224540209603920