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Pre-Existing Attitudes About The Legal System: The Thirteenth Juror?, Larissa Angelique Schmersal
Pre-Existing Attitudes About The Legal System: The Thirteenth Juror?, Larissa Angelique Schmersal
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The idealized role of the jury is that of a neutral decision maker; however, the degree to which individual verdict preferences represent jurors' pre-existing beliefs about the legal system, theories about issues important to the case at hand, and prior understanding of legal terms remains inadequately explained. The purpose of the current study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of pre-existing attitudes about the legal system upon verdict preferences. Participants were 463 undergraduate students from the University of Texas at El Paso. Consistent with the hypotheses, pre-existing attitudes about the legal system played a role in individual verdicts, …