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The Possibility Of Communal Biases In Alibi Evaluation: The University Of Dayton, Norbert Wessels

Honors Theses

Considering the lack of data surrounding its influences, the current study aims to investigate the influence of identification with a geographic community on the alibi generation process. It does this by examining three questions:

• Do geographic cues allow you to identify with an alibi generator, and therefore have bearing on the evaluation of said alibi?
• Does identification with the alibi generator lead to stronger alibi evaluations?
• Do the answers to the previous two questions indicate bias?

To do this, 104 students at the University of Dayton were asked to engage in an alibi evaluation scenario that judged their opinion on …