Comprehensibility of Penalty Phase Instructions: Motivation of Jurors and Quality of Instructions

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This pilot study examines the role of motivated cognition in the comprehensibility of instructions at the penalty phase of a trial. In particular, it will assess the interactive effects of cognitive and motivational factors on jurors' abilities to understand penalty-phase instructions and follow the law in capital cases. We anticipate that people in a promotion motivational state seek accomplishment and advancement by obtaining matches to a desired end state, while people in a prevention motivational state seek safety and security by avoiding mismatches to the desired end state. It follows that jurors in a prevention motivational state will vigilantly discharge their responsibilities and avoid making errors of commission (i.e., sentencing a defendant to death when the law supports a prison sentence) while jurors in a promotion motivational state will work hard to accomplish the justice-based goal of punishing the defendant and avoid making errors of omission (i.e., failing to invoke the death penalty when the facts support it). The study will lay the groundwork for future work on the role of such factors on multimember jury deliberations.