The Impact of Acquaintance Rape Stories and Case-Specific Pretrial Publicity on Juror Decision Making

Abstract

In the first of two experimental trial simulations, the authors manipulated exposure to publicity about the defendant and exposure to general stories about acquaintance rape that portrayed men as sexual predators. Participants then viewed an enacted acquaintance rape trial. Across many dependent measures, men exposed to the predatory rape publicity exhibited a pronounced pro-defendant tendency, whereas women were unaffected. Case-specific pretrial publicity had a relatively small impact. In a follow-up experiment, participants were exposed to the predatory acquaintance rape scenario or to a scenario emphasizing male-female miscommunication. Again, men exposed to the predatory publicity became more pro-defendant; men receiving the miscommunication scenario did not exhibit such an effect. The tendency of male jurors to react against information that reflects negatively on them is discussed in the context of psychological reactance and social judgement theory.