NATURALLY-OCCURRING EXPECTATION EFFECTS

In this article, the author investigates naturally occurring expectati on effects in a juror decision-making paradigm. Mock juror research, u sing jury-eligible adults and videotapes of trial judges from actual t rials, suggested that even when admonished to disregard the judge's be havior and form their own opinions, participants returned verdicts con cordant with the judges' bent. Variations in the timing of instruction (expectation) with respect to the presentation of the evidence were c onsistent with a primacy effect as predicted by the belief-adjustment model. The implications for legal procedure and investigating naturall y occurring expectation effects as a real social force are discussed.