PREVENTING THE APPLICATION OF STEREOTYPIC BIASES IN THE COURTROOM - THE ROLE OF DETAILED TESTIMONY

To determine whether detailed testimony has equivalent effects on judg ments of stereotyped and nonstereotyped defendants, subjects read a sy nopsis of a criminal court case in which the defendant either was a st ereotyped offender or was not. Additionally, the degree of detail in t he prosecution testimony and defense testimony was varied. Results ind icated that defendant stereotypicality had a greeter impact under cond itions in which witnesses provided equal amounts of detail in their te stimony. When witnesses differed in the degree of detail in their test imony, the stereotypicality of the defendant was disregarded and judgm ents favored the witness who provided greater detail. These findings s uggest that stereotype application is not inevitable; rather, stereoty pes may bias jurors' decision-making processes when the quality and qu antity of the evidence does not easily lead to a confident judgment.