Study shows how race influences jury decisionsStudy shows how race influences jury decisions

ANN ARBOR—Are jurors influenced by the race of defendants? According to a University of Michigan study, the answer is yes. But the juror’s race, as well as the defendant’s, affects courtroom decisions, the researchers found. And different types of criminal trials affect Black and white jurors in different ways.

The study will be published in the November 2000 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Researchers Samuel R. Sommers, a graduate student in psychology, and Phoebe C. Ellsworth, U-M professor of law and of psychology, recruited 211 adults to serve as mock jurors in a case of barroom assault by a man against his girlfriend. About three-quarters of those recruited were white and about one-quarter were Black. In all versions of the case, the race of the man and the woman were different. White and Black mock jurors were equally likely to receive a version featuring a white or a Black defendant.

In addition, half the mock jurors of each race received versions that gave race an explicit role in the assault. Before the defendant slapped his girlfriend, one version said that he yelled, “You know better than to talk that way about a white (or a Black) man in front of his friends.”

The other version said that the defendant yelled, “You know better than to talk that way about a man in front of his friends.”

The researchers asked the mock jurors to rate how guilty the defendant was and how severe they believed his punishment should be.

When the racial nature of the crime was emphasized, white mock jurors were not influenced by the race of the defendant, while Blacks were likely to demonstrate same-race leniency.

Sentencing recommendations showed a similar trend: white mock jurors were not influenced by the race of the defendant while Black mock jurors recommended longer sentences for white defendants.

When the racial nature of the crime was not emphasized, white mock jurors gave Black defendants significantly higher guilt ratings, while Black mock jurors continued to judge Black defendants as less guilty than white defendants.

“When racial issues arise in a trial, white mock jurors are on guard against the possibility of prejudicial feelings and maintain the appearance of fairness,” Sommers explains. “But when racial issues are not made explicit, white jurors are lenient toward the white defendant and more punitive toward the Black defendant.

“Black mock jurors, on the other hand, do not demonstrate egalitarianism in any condition.”

Most white Americans are taught to believe that racism is unacceptable, Sommers and Ellsworth suggest, and may be motivated to deny their prejudiced attitudes against Blacks. Black Americans, raised to be skeptical of the egalitarian claims and promises of white America, may have no particular motivation to conceal their anti-white sentiments.

Or, perhaps Blacks are more likely to view the legal system as inherently biased. Black jurors’ conceptions of fairness might require that they demonstrate a degree of same-race leniency in order to level the playing field for Black defendants.

Nevertheless, Sommers and Ellsworth emphasize that the findings do not mean that Black jurors will not convict Black defendants, as many prosecutors maintain. “In spite of their tendency to correct against perceived injustice in the legal system, Black jurors still give Black defendants high guilt ratings,” says Sommers. “It is also worth emphasizing that white jurors—and, by extension, white police officers and white judges, among others—are sometimes prejudiced in their treatment of Black defendants, justifying the skepticism among Black jurors about the fairness of the legal system.”

In other mock juror studies, Sommers and Ellsworth have found that the influence of racial issues on white jurors is not limited to crimes involving domestic violence. They are currently examining different ways in which race can be made salient in a trial, including the attorney strategy of “playing the race card.” Future studies are also planned to investigate how the discussion of racial issues during deliberation differs on juries that include Black members compared with juries that are all-white.

Personality and Social Psychology BulletinPhoebe C. EllsworthNews and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan