Deck 18: Social Psychology and the Law

Question 1

The social psychologist Tom Tyler identified three factors that shape our sense of procedural justice.Which of the following is NOT one of those three factors?

A) the neutrality of the authority figure
B) trust in the system
C) being treated with respect
D) the magnitude of the punishment

Answer 1

the magnitude of the punishment

Question 2

Research conducted by Hastie, Penrod, and Pennington tested whether juries deliberated cases differently based on whether they had to reach a unanimous decision or a majority decision.What did this research show?

A) There were no differences in how juries deliberated, whether they had to reach unanimity or not.
B) Juries who had to reach a unanimous decision deliberated longer than those who had to reach only a majority decision.
C) Juries who had to reach a majority decision deliberated longer than those who had to reach a unanimous decision.
D) Juries who had a reach a majority decision were unable to reach a final verdict.

Answer 2

Juries who had to reach a unanimous decision deliberated longer than those who had to reach only a majority decision.

Question 3

Eyewitness errors have been found to be involved in more than _____________ of cases of wrongful convictions.

A) 50 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 75 percent
D) 90 percent

Answer 3

50 percent

Question 4

Loftus and Pickrell persuaded the family members of college students to tell stories about when their student relative was five years old, including one "story" that was actually fake and never really happened.How did the students respond?

A) All the students were able to distinguish between the true stories and the fake one.
B) About 25 percent of the students "recalled" the fake event.
C) Students who were more suggestible "recalled" the fake event.
D) About 90 percent of the students "recalled" the fake event.

Question 5

Social scientists have differentiated two motives that determine preferences for different kinds of punishment.These motives are:

A) just deserts and deterrence
B) deterrence and punitive
C) compensatory and punitive
D) just deserts and eye-for-an-eye

Question 6

Sheila, an attorney, worries that she will be unable to pick good jurors.Instead, she hires a specialist to conduct surveys and compile statistics on what demographic qualities of jurors might predict support for her client.Sheila is using ________________ to pick her jury.

A) scientific jury selection
B) peremptory challenges
C) logic
D) partiality testing

Question 7

Damages that represent the amount the plaintiff should receive to cover any loss or harm sustained are called ______________ damages, whereas damages that are intended to deter the defendant from being negligent in the future are called _______________ damages.

A) compensatory; punitive
B) punitive; compensatory
C) punitive; reward
D) reward; retaliation

Question 8

Research has shown that merely hearing the questions typically asked in the death-qualification part of jury selection tends to bias potential jurors toward conviction, because

A) those jurors are already biased toward conviction before they begin the death-qualification process.
B) the death-qualification questions contain misleading information about the suspect, which changes jurors' opinions.
C) the death-qualification questions contain an implication of guilt, so the jurors are biased into thinking of the suspects as guilty.
D) the death-qualification questions weed out jurors who can be fair, leaving only biased jurors.

Question 9

Jason has undergone death qualification and is now serving on a jury, whereas David was excluded from the jury because he was unwilling to vote for the death penalty.Jason is probably more concerned about crime in general, and more likely to find the suspect guilty, than David.

Question 10

The goal of the _____________ motive is to punish the deed that was committed; the goal of the _________________ motive is to prevent future crimes.

A) deterrence; just deserts
B) attribution; deterrence
C) just deserts; deterrence
D) just deserts; compensatory

Question 11

We should be careful about always trusting eyewitness accounts, because memory is

A) an active, constructive process that can be affected by all kinds of information.
B) often incorrect, particularly in children.
C) a registry of the information that a person has encountered.
D) usually reliable, except in people with mental illness.

Question 12

People who are given harsher punishments are more likely to feel that the criminal justice system is unfair and give lower ratings of procedural justice.

Question 13

Research shows that jurors make decisions about awarding punitive damages by first consulting their sense of outrage over what happened.

Question 14

In cases in which defendants are convicted and later proved innocent by DNA tests, as many as ________________ had falsely confessed to the crime.

A) one-half
B) one-quarter
C) three-fourths
D) one-fifth

Question 15

People's assessments of the fairness of processes leading to legal outcomes are called

A) retribution perceptions.
B) procedural justice.
C) legal justice.
D) bias perceptions.

Question 16

Accurate eyewitnesses are generally more confident than inaccurate ones.

Question 17

Psychological research indicates that death-qualified jurors are

A) more concerned about crime.
B) more skeptical of civil liberties that protect the rights of the accused.
C) more likely to convict the suspect.
D) All of the above are true of death-qualified jurors.

Question 18

The portion of a trial in U.S.courts in which potential jurors are questioned and a jury is selected is known as

A) scientific jury selection.
B) the voir dire.
C) decision rules.
D) habeas corpus.

Question 19

The textbook describes research conducted by Loftus and colleagues in which participants were shown pictures of an automobile accident and were asked questions about the pictures.Some participants were asked questions that were consistent with what they actually saw, but some participants were asked misleading questions.Which of the following best describes the results of this research?

A) Most participants correctly remembered the pictures, no matter what kinds of questions they were asked.
B) All participants had difficulty correctly remembering the pictures, no matter what kinds of questions they were asked.
C) The misleading questions impaired participants' ability to recall the pictures correctly.
D) The misleading questions affected memory only in participants younger than 10 years of age.

Question 20

Most jurors are accurate at recognizing whether a confession is real or fake.