SURNAME EFFECTS IN JUDGMENTS OF MOCK JURORS

94 undergraduate students read a description of a legal case, involvin g either a theft or a murder, in which surname and occupational status of defendant were systematically varied. In addition to the nature of the crime, the surname of the defendant was associated with perceptio ns of the offence and the offender. Findings suggest that the connotat ions of a surname may influence judgments both by invoking stereotypes such as ethnicity and by semantic intrusion into the judgmental proce ss.