Laboratory simulation and bias in the study of juror behavior: A methodological note.

Abstract

Tested whether the strength of treatment effects (e.g., defendant attractiveness) may become weaker as the experimental simulation becomes more realistic and complex by combining various levels of biasing pretrial publicity with a short and a long trial. Ss were 529 undergraduates. Results provided no support for the contention that treatment effects act differently as a function of the length of the stimulus trial in which they are embedded. Rather, it is suggested that treatments used in simplified jury simulations may often show similar effects when examined in more realistic, complex settings if the treatments are comparable.