Guilt Ratings Research Articles

Facts only the perpetrator could have known? A study of contamination in mock crime interrogations.

This paper examines contamination in interrogations: the process by which an interrogator divulges privileged information to a suspect. In Experiment 1, we predicted that mock investigators would communicate critical crime details when they interview mock suspects about a crime-and that innocent and guilty suspects alike would later produce confessions that contained these details. In Experiment 2, we hypothesized that observers who listened only to the confessions would exhibit a greater guilt bias than those who also had exposure to the eliciting interview. Experiment 1 (N = 59) used student participants in a mock crime scenario to test whether contamination is natural to communication even in the absence of external incentives. In Experiment 2, MTurk participants (N = 499) listened to audio-clips from Experiment 1 to test whether presenting observers with the full interview decreases guilt ratings for false confessors. Investigators divulged crime information to both innocent and guilty suspects, and even false confessions later included accurate details. Although Experiment 2 observers exhibited a guilt bias, exposure to the interview (not just the confession) attenuated this effect for innocent confessors. The information disclosure associated with contamination is a normal cognitive process that occurs even without external incentives to secure a confession. Experiment 2 showed that seeing contamination in action may decrease judgments of guilt for innocent suspects. Interrogations should be recorded in their entirety to provide fact finders with an objective record of the source of crime details contained within narrative confessions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Síndrome de Burnout em professores: diferenças entre níveis de ensino

Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar a diferença nas dimensões da SB em 1.284 professores de acordo com os diferentes níveis de ensino. Foram utilizados um questionário de dados sociodemográficos e laborais e o Cuestionario para la Evaluación del Síndrome de Quemarse por el Trabajo - CESQT-PE. Os resultados, obtidos por meio da Análise de Variância (ANOVA), revelaram, no ensino infantil, médias altas em Ilusão pelo Trabalho e, baixas em Desgaste Psicológico e Indolência. Docentes dos níveis fundamental e médio apresentam médias baixas na dimensão Ilusão pelo Trabalho e altas em Desgaste Psicológico e Indolência, e professores do ensino fundamental apresentaram índices elevados de Culpa. Os resultados revelam a necessidade de intervenções diferenciadas de acordo com cada nível de ensino.

Guilt, Shame, Empathy, Self-Esteem, and Traumas: New Data for the Validation of the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale-15 Self-Report (IGRS-15s).

The aim of this paper is to present further data for the validation of the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale-15 self-report (IGRS-15s; Gazzillo et al., 2018). We recruited a sample of 448 subjects, to whom we administered the IGRS-15s together with other empirically validated measures for the assessment of social desirability, shame, self-esteem, empathy, mental health and therapeutic alliance. In line with our hypotheses, the previously established three-factor structure of the IGRS-15s (Survivor guilt, Omnipotence guilt, and Self-hate) was confirmed. Moreover, the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of IGRS-15s were adequate to good. All the IGRS-15s factors were negatively correlated with self-esteem and mental health and positively correlated with shame; Survivor guilt and Omnipotence guilt were positively correlated with empathy; Survivor guilt and Self-hate negatively affected therapeutic alliance; and different traumas had different, theoretically predictable, impacts on the different kinds of guilt. Overall, these data support the reliability and validity of the IGRS-15s.

Guns, Gloves, and Tasers: Perceptions of Police Officers and Their Use of Weapon as a Function of Race and Gender

The purpose of the present studies was to examine how officer characteristics influenced mock jurors’ judgments in a police use of force case. In study 1 (N = 356), we examined officer race, suspect race, and weapon type (gun vs. taser vs. assault gloves), and in study 2 (N = 352) we examined officer gender, weapon type, and whether the officer was on or off duty. In both studies, participants read a case summary concerning police use of force where the suspect/victim died from his injuries. In study 1, mock jurors were more likely to vote guilty when the officer was White as well as when a gun was used. The officer was perceived most favorably when he was Black and a taser or assault gloves were used compared to a gun. Mock jurors’ attitudes toward the police also were examined and were found to be related to mock jurors’ guilt ratings and perceptions of the officer. In study 2, mock jurors were more likely to vote guilty for the defendant when the officer was male, off duty, and the weapon used was a gun. Mock jurors also viewed the police officer more negatively when he was off duty as well as when a gun was used. Overall, this study is the first to our knowledge to systematically vary both officer characteristics and suspect/victim characteristics and the results suggest that both have the capacity to influence how use of force cases are perceived by potential jurors.

Elder sexual abuse and implicit agism: examining the warm-incompetent bias among mock jurors

ABSTRACTImplicit ageist beliefs about the warmth and incompetence of older adults may influence jurors’ perceptions and judgments of an older adult’s competence in legal cases hinging on capacity and consent, including elder sexual abuse. However, little is known about the nuances of implicit agism in elder sexual abuse cases, and if it can be attenuated. The current study proposed to address these gaps via a randomized vignette design administered to a community sample of 391 US adults. Mock juror participants evaluated an elder sexual abuse case involving an older married couple, in which the victim had dementia. Results suggest that implicit agism was present among mock jurors, consistent with a warm-incompetence bias, and was predictive of mock jurors’ guilt ratings. Age- and dementia-relevant jury instructions and mock juror gender were not found to be predictive of guilt ratings. Implicit agism among jurors should be addressed to reduce the potential for implicit age bias to affect elder sexual abuse cases.

Examining Mock Jurors' Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence Factors

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether juror gender, male-to-female or female-to-male abuse, eyewitness age (8, 12, and 16 years old), and type of intimate partner violence witnessed (physical, sexual, and emotional) influenced mock jurors' decision-making. Mock jurors (N = 1,162) read a trial transcript where the child of a married couple witnessed one of the three types of intimate partner violence, perpetrated by the husband against his wife or the wife against her husband, and answered related questions. Mock jurors were asked to render a dichotomous verdict, continuous guilt rating, and rate their perceptions of the victim, defendant, and eyewitness. Male jurors were more likely to find the defendant guilty when the defendant was female and the witness was 16 years old; additionally, female mock jurors assigned higher guilt ratings for the male defendant compared to the female defendant. Mock jurors also assigned higher guilt ratings when the abuse was physical compared to both sexual and emotional; abuse also influenced perceptions of the defendant, victim, and eyewitness. Mock jurors also were more likely to hold positive perceptions of the eyewitness when she was 16 years old compared to 8 years old. The results of the current study suggest that gender of the defendant and victim may combine to influence mock jurors' perceptions of a case involving intimate partner violence; moreover, the type of abuse witnessed by a child also may impact the child's perceived credibility.

Liberals perceive more racism than conservatives when police shoot Black men—But, reading about White privilege increases perceived racism, and shifts attributions of guilt, regardless of political ideology

Across two studies, we examined how ideological differences in perceptions of racism influenced non-Black people's perceptions of violent encounters between police officers and Black men. In Study 1, social liberals perceived more racism when a Black man was shot by police than did social conservatives. However, a lesson about White privilege increased perceived racism in these events, regardless of political ideology. In Study 2, we replicated these effects and found that increases in perceived racism after reading about White privilege were associated with blaming the Black suspect less and the officer more for the violent altercation. We conclude that moral evaluations of police shootings are influenced by the salience of systemic racial inequality, which may help explain ideological differences in the perception of violence against Black men. Moreover, White privilege lessons can increase perceived racism in these events, regardless of ideology, and with downstream consequences for ratings of legal guilt.

The Effects of Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics on Ratings of Guilt in a Sexual Assault Case.

Scholars have long investigated how perceptions of the victim affect judgments in a sexual assault case, but little research has investigated perceptions of the perpetrator. Participants (N = 322) read a scenario about an alleged sexual assault that manipulated victim behavior (speed of reporting) and perpetrator characteristics (athlete status and celebrity status) and then made judgments about the victim and perpetrator. Results showed that victim behavior was the most important factor in judgments. Furthermore, significant three-way interactions suggested that participants may attend to perpetrator characteristics but only when the victim's behavior is consistent with stereotypes about sexual assault victims.

Do low-calorie sweetened beverages help to control food cravings? Two experimental studies

Low-calorie sweetened (LCS) beverages may help consumers to satisfy hedonic food cravings without violating dieting goals, however this remains unexplored. The present research investigated the effect of priming hedonic eating motivations on ad libitum energy intake in frequent and non-consumers of LCS beverages. It was hypothesised that energy intake would be greater after the hedonic eating prime relative to a control prime in non-consumers, but that frequent LCS beverage consumers would be protected from this effect. In Study 1 (N = 120), frequent and non-consumers were exposed to either chocolate or neutral cues (craving vs. control condition) and then completed a beverage-related visual probe task with concurrent eye-tracking. Ad libitum energy intake from sweet and savoury snacks and beverages (including LCS) was then assessed. Study 2 followed a similar protocol, but included only frequent consumers (N = 172) and manipulated the availability of LCS beverages in the ad libitum eating context (available vs. unavailable). Measures of guilt and perceived behavioural control were also included. In Study 1, as hypothesised, non-consumers showed greater energy intake in the craving condition relative to the control condition, but frequent consumers had similar energy intake in both conditions. Frequent consumers (but not non-consumers) also demonstrated an attentional bias for LCS beverage stimuli compared to both sugar and water stimuli. In contrast, in Study 2 frequent consumers showed greater energy intake in the craving condition relative to the control condition; however, overall energy intake was significantly greater when LCS beverages were unavailable compared to when they were available. Ratings of guilt were higher and perceived control was lower in the LCS-unavailable condition relative to the LCS-available condition. Conclusions: LCS beverages did not consistently protect consumers from craving-induced increases in energy intake. However, frequent consumers consumed fewer calories overall when LCS beverages were available (relative to unavailable), as well as perceiving more control over their food intake and feeling less guilty.

The Influence of Familiarity Recency and Eyewitness Age on Mock Jurors’ Judgement

The majority of research examining factors that influence jurors where the sole evidence is eyewitness identification focuses on stranger identifications where the eyewitness has never encountered the perpetrator before. However, it also is important to understand how familiarity between the eyewitness and perpetrator may be influential as familiarity is prevalent in criminal cases. Therefore, the current study examined the influence of familiarity recency (i.e., how long ago the eyewitness knew the defendant as a former neighbor 1, 5, or 10 years ago) and age of the eyewitness (25, 50, or 75 years old) on mock jurors’ decision-making. Mock jurors (N = 326) read a trial transcript involving a positive identification from an eyewitness. Neither familiarity recency nor eyewitness age influenced mock jurors’ perceptions of the defendant or eyewitness, or verdict decisions. However, mock jurors’ subjective ratings regarding the familiarity between the eyewitness and defendant were highly associated with mock jurors’ perceptions and verdict decisions. Specifically, higher familiarity ratings were associated with more guilty verdicts, higher guilt ratings, more positive perceptions of the eyewitness, and more negative perceptions of the defendant. This is an important finding as it demonstrates that jurors’ personal perceptions of familiarity are highly influential in familiar eyewitness cases.

Mock Jurors' Perceptions of Sexual Assault on a University Campus.

The purpose of this study was to examine how defendant gender, victim gender, location of sexual assault (professor's office vs. fraternity party), and whether the defendant was intoxicated influenced mock jurors' decisions in a sexual assault case. Mock jurors (N = 503) read a mock trial transcript depicting an alleged sexual assault and were asked to render a dichotomous verdict, continuous guilt rating, and rate their perceptions of the victim and defendant. There was no influence on mock jurors' dichotomous verdicts. However, the presence of intoxication did influence continuous guilt ratings; intoxicated defendants elicited higher guilt ratings compared to sober defendants. Whether the defendant was intoxicated and the location of the crime were found to impact mock jurors' perceptions of the defendant (e.g., believability, credibility); whereas the gender of the defendant affected the perceived control the defendant had over the situation. Victim gender was found to impact mock jurors perceptions of the victim, such that female victims were perceived more favorably than male victims; this may support the idea that male victims of sexual assault are generally perceived more negatively than female victims. These results, and more, are discussed in terms of the current study and the larger implications.

Faith in thy threshold.

The current study focussed on the decision-making processes of jurors. The study investigated how jurors make a decision, if they integrate information within their decision-making process and if cue utilisation thresholds promote confirmation bias. To do this, 108 participants listened to one of nine cases. These participants were asked to give a likelihood of guilt rating after each piece of evidence, to state what the last piece of information was that they needed to make a decision and to give a final verdict at the end of a trial. The results highlighted that threshold decision making was being utilised, that information integration may allow thresholds to be reached and that thresholds may promote confirmation bias to reduce cognitive dissonance. In conclusion, this suggests that jurors integrate information until they reach a leading verdict, then the evaluation of information is distorted to support the leading threshold. Implications relate to legal instructions for jurors.

Choice and Background Knowledge: How do Individuals Evaluate Accumulating Evidence in A Murder Scenario?

Can the simple act of selecting a possible suspect of a crime bias the evaluation of the evidence? Does the typicality of the crime impact the assessment of guilt of a suspect? In two experiments, we examine these two questions and find some remarkable results with implications for law enforcement and jury deliberation. Experiment 1 data show that by allowing participants to choose a most-likely-perpetrator, guilt ratings were substantially higher compared to participants who were not allowed to make a choice. This difference persisted after reading a further body of incriminating evidence. In experiment 2 participants were provided with general and specific background information relevant to a suspect, in other words how common was the crime-suspect scenario. When provided with high plausibility compared to low plausibility information, participants gave higher guilt ratings that persisted after further evidence. The results are interpreted in terms of argument theory which provides a parsimonious explanation of the data. These results have implications for the conduct of investigations, for example: putting in place procedures that minimize the effects of suspect prioritization and background information.

Preliminary Data about the Validation of a Self-Report for the Assessment of Interpersonal Guilt: The Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scales-15s (IGRS-15s).

The aim of this article is to present validation data about a self-report rating scale for the assessment of interpersonal guilt according to Control-Mastery Theory (CMT; Silbershatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993; Weiss, Sampson, & The Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986), the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale-15s (IGRS-15s). In order to perform the validation of this tool in an Italian sample we have collected a sample of 645 nonclinical subjects. They had to complete the IGRS-15s, the Scale for the Measurement of the Impending Punishment (SMIP; Caprara et al., 1990), the Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire-67 (IGQ-67; O'Connor et al., 1997), the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI; Dupuy, 1984), and the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS; Davis, Panksepp, & Normansell, 2003), together with an ad-hoc questionnaire for collecting demographic data, the Socio-Demographical Schedule. We have performed a confirmatory factor analysis to verify if the four-factor solution based on CMT and replicated in previous research (Gazzillo et al., 2017) was confirmed. Then, we checked the retest reliability of IGRS-15s after four weeks in a random subsample of 54 subjects. In order to assess its concurrent and discriminant validity, we calculated the correlations between IGRS-15s assessment and SMIP and IGQ-67. Finally, to test its construct validity, we assessed the relationships between the IGRS-15s and the affective systems using the ANPS and the wellbeing assessed with the PGWBI. The data collected support the retest reliability and the concurrent and discriminant validity of the measure, and we have collected preliminary data about its construct validity. Examples of the possible clinical and research applications of this tool are discussed.

The Influence of Prior Familiarity, Identification Delay, Appearance Change, and Descriptor Type and Errors on Mock Jurors’ Judgments

Three studies examined the influence of an eyewitness’ prior relationship with the defendant in combination with identification delay (study 1; N = 281), defendant appearance change between the time of the crime and identification (study 2; N = 194), and type of descriptors reported (i.e., perpetrator or crime scene) and presence of descriptor errors (study 3; N = 304) on mock jurors’ judgments. Familiarity was not influential in dichotomous verdicts (i.e., guilty vs. not guilty); however, in studies 1 and 2, when the eyewitness and defendant shared a personal relationship (e.g., familial), mock jurors were more likely to assign higher guilt ratings to the defendant, suggesting that personal relationships may sway jurors to believe that an accurate identification can be made. In study 3, when descriptor errors were present, there were more guilty verdicts, thus supporting prior research that has found when descriptor errors are introduced, the testimony is viewed as less credible.

Guilty pleasures: The effect of perceived overeating on food addiction attributions and snack choice

Despite being widely debated throughout the scientific community, the concept of food addiction remains a popular explanation for overeating and obesity amongst the lay public. Overeating is often accompanied by feelings of guilt and dietary concern, and this may lead people to attribute their eating to an addiction in order to minimise personal responsibility. Research also indicates that food addiction attributions and dietary concern may lead people to limit their exposure to tempting foods. To test these ideas, we examined the effect of perceived overeating on food addiction attributions and snack choice. Subjective ratings of guilt and dietary concern were indirectly manipulated by leading female participants (N=90) to believe they had eaten more than (overeating condition), less than (undereating condition), or roughly the same (control condition) amount of palatable foods in relation to their own estimated consumption and to previous participants. Participants then rated the relative importance of a list of explanations for their eating (including “the foods were really addictive”) and selected a snack to take home with them. Ratings of guilt and dietary concern were highest in the overeating condition, and lowest in the undereating condition, indicating that the manipulation had been successful. However, findings revealed no effect of condition on food addiction attributions. As predicted, participants in the overeating condition selected less tempting snacks than in the undereating condition. However, this effect was not mediated by guilt/dietary concern. There was also no association between food-addiction attributions and snack choice. These findings suggest that perceived overeating affects snack choice but not food addiction attributions. Future research should investigate whether food addiction attributions may be driven by feelings of guilt and dietary concern following longer-term disinhibited eating patterns.

Keep your bias to yourself: How deliberating with differently biased others affects mock-jurors' guilt decisions, perceptions of the defendant, memories, and evidence interpretation.

This experiment explored how mock-jurors' (N = 648) guilt decisions, perceptions of the defendant, memories, and evidence interpretation varied as a function of jury type and pretrial publicity (PTP); utilizing a 2 (jury type: pure-PTP vs. mixed-PTP) × 3 (PTP: defendant, victim, and irrelevant) factorial design. Mock-juries (N = 126) were composed of jurors exposed to the same type of PTP (pure-PTP; e.g., defendant-PTP) or different types of PTP (mixed-PTP; e.g., half exposed to defendant-PTP and half to irrelevant-PTP). Before deliberations jurors exposed to defendant-PTP were most likely to vote guilty; while those exposed to victim-PTP were least likely. After deliberations, jury type and PTP affected jurors' guilt decisions. Specifically, jurors deliberating on pure-PTP juries had verdict distributions that closely resembled the predeliberation distributions. The verdict distributions of jurors on mixed-PTP juries suggested that jurors were influenced by those they deliberated with. Jurors not exposed to PTP appeared to incorporate bias from PTP-exposed jurors. Only PTP had significant effects on postdeliberation measures of memory and evidence interpretation. Mediation analyses revealed that evidence interpretation and defendant credibility assessments mediated the effect of PTP on guilt ratings. Taken together these findings suggest that during deliberations PTP bias can spread to jurors not previously exposed to PTP. In addition, juries composed of jurors exposed to different PTP slants, as opposed to a single PTP slant, can result in less biased decisions. Finally, deliberating with others who do not share similar biases may have little, if any, impact on biased evidence interpretation or memory errors. (PsycINFO Database Record

Abuse Is Abuse: The Influence of Type of Abuse, Victim Age, and Defendant Age on Juror Decision Making.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of victim age, defendant age, and type of abuse on mock juror decision making. Mock jurors (N = 556) read a trial transcript in which a soccer coach was accused of sexual abuse or physical abuse against a player. The victim's age (child, adolescent, or young adult), the defendant's age (young, middle age, or older adult), and the type of abuse (sexual or physical) were varied. Mock jurors provided a dichotomous and continuous verdict and rated their perceptions of the victim and the defendant. Although no differences on mock jurors' dichotomous verdict were found due to victim age, defendant age, or type of abuse, mock jurors provided higher guilt ratings when the abuse was sexual and both the victim and defendant were described as young adults. Similarly, mock jurors rated the victim more positively when the victim was described as a young adult (vs. child) for both sexual and physical abuse cases, and rated the defendant more positively when the victim was described as a child compared with young adult in sexual abuse cases. These findings suggest that mock jurors were largely influenced by victim age, particularly when the victim was described as an adult compared with a child.

Reliability and Validity of the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale-15: A New Clinician-Reporting Tool for Assessing Interpersonal Guilt According to Control-Mastery Theory.

This article introduces the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale-15 (IGRS-15), a brief clinician-rated tool for the clinical assessment of interpersonal guilt as conceived in Control-Mastery Theory (CMT; Silberschatz, 2015; Weiss, 1993), and its psychometric proprieties. The items of the IGRS-15 were derived from the CMT clinical and empirical literature about guilt, and from the authors' clinical experiences. Twenty-eight clinicians assessed 154 patients with the IGRS-15, the patient self-reported Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire-67 (IGQ-67; O'Connor, Berry, Weiss, Bush, & Sampson, 1997), and the Clinical Data Form (CDF; Westen & Shedler, 1999). A semi-exploratory factor analysis pointed to a four-factor solution in line with the kinds of guilt described in CMT: Survivor guilt, Separation/disloyalty guilt, Omnipotent responsibility guilt, and Self-hate. The test-retest reliability of the IGRS-15 was good. Moreover, the IGRS-15 showed good concurrent and discriminant validity with the IGQ-67. IGRS-15 represents a first step in the direction of supporting the clinical judgment about interpersonal guilt with an empirically sound and easy-to-use tool.

"But He's a Star Football Player!": How Social Status Influences Mock Jurors' Perceptions in a Sexual Assault Case.

There have been several recent, high-profile cases in the media that have shed light on the perceived leniency in sentencing defendants in sexual assault cases. In a number of these cases, the defendant was well known within their community (e.g., Brock Turner; People v. Turner) or nationally (e.g., Ghomeshi; R v. Ghomeshi). The purpose of this study was to examine how the social status of the defendant (low vs. high), victim social status (low vs. high), victim gender (male vs. female), and the reason the victim was unconscious during the assault (consuming alcohol vs. consuming cold medicine) influenced mock jurors' decisions in a sexual assault case. Mock jurors (N = 489) read a mock trial transcript depicting an alleged sexual assault. Mock jurors were asked to render a dichotomous verdict, continuous guilt rating, and rate their perceptions of the victim and defendant. There was no influence of the variables on mock jurors' dichotomous verdicts; however, social status influenced guilt ratings. There also was a combined influence of the defendant's social status and the reason the victim was unconscious such that when the defendant was described as low status, and the victim was unconscious due to alcohol consumption, the defendant received higher guilt ratings compared with when the victim was unconscious due to cold medicine. Moreover, the victim was perceived as having more control over the situation when the defendant was the star quarterback (i.e., high status), the victim was female, and she was unconscious due to alcohol consumption compared with cold medicine. These results suggest that victims may be blamed based on their perceived social status and other factors that may have influenced their control over the sexual assault, such as alcohol consumption.