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DANGEROUS OPINIONS: PERCEPTION OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ON JURY DECISION MAKING

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Date Issued:
2014
Abstract/Description:
The purpose of the study was to examine whether a potential juror would give harsher sentences to defendants based only on the manipulation of the defendant's personal hobby. This was investigated by manipulating the hobby through a hypothetical manslaughter scenario in a vignette. Participants were asked to answer questions pertaining to the defendant's guilt and potential sentencing. Results indicate that participants' sex, participants' authoritarianism, and defendant's hobby were significant factors. Significant interactions were found pertaining to whether the defendant should receive counseling across sex by violence and sex by avocation. These results are evidence that the use of jurors in the legal system is flawed and needs to be improved upon. Future research should examine an age distribution closer to the national mean, and the online setting should be replaced with an in person mock jury that will have more realistic group dynamic and higher ecological validity.
Title: DANGEROUS OPINIONS: PERCEPTION OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ON JURY DECISION MAKING.
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Name(s): Jacobi, Brock, Author
Sims, Valerie, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2014
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: The purpose of the study was to examine whether a potential juror would give harsher sentences to defendants based only on the manipulation of the defendant's personal hobby. This was investigated by manipulating the hobby through a hypothetical manslaughter scenario in a vignette. Participants were asked to answer questions pertaining to the defendant's guilt and potential sentencing. Results indicate that participants' sex, participants' authoritarianism, and defendant's hobby were significant factors. Significant interactions were found pertaining to whether the defendant should receive counseling across sex by violence and sex by avocation. These results are evidence that the use of jurors in the legal system is flawed and needs to be improved upon. Future research should examine an age distribution closer to the national mean, and the online setting should be replaced with an in person mock jury that will have more realistic group dynamic and higher ecological validity.
Identifier: CFH0004569 (IID), ucf:45177 (fedora)
Note(s): 2014-05-01
B.S.
Sciences, Dept. of Psychology
Bachelors
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): Jury
Jury-Decision Making
Law
Mock Jury
Video Games
Violent Video Games
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004569
Restrictions on Access: campus 2015-04-01
Host Institution: UCF

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