Collaborative Research: Victim Impact Statements in Capital Trials: Examining the Differential Influence of Anger and Sadness on Juror Sentencing Decisions

美国最高法院警告说，受害者影响陈述（VIS）的煽动性可能导致反复无常的量刑判决，本研究的目的是研究在何种情况下，情绪影响VIS影响死刑案件的量刑决定。对情绪的基础研究表明，负面情绪对决策的影响并不一致。愤怒可以降低信息处理的深度，促进有偏见的决定，而悲伤可以促进系统的处理，促进客观的决策。因此，VIS影响陪审员量刑决定的潜力可能取决于陪审员对VIS的反应是悲伤还是愤怒。第一项研究从实际死刑案件中考察了VIS。对于描述性分析，VIS交付方法，VIS证词的数量长度和VIS的情感内容将被检查。VIS的内容分析将用于评估受害者通常表达的情绪，以及愤怒或悲伤的VIS是否能预测量刑决定。第二项研究操纵悲伤和愤怒（使用研究1中获得的VIS），并测量这些特定情绪对量刑决定和信息的影响。很少有研究考察特定的负面情绪对陪审员信息处理和决策的影响。这些研究结果将为情绪对决策的影响提供基础理论。此外，研究结果将为心理法学的应用领域提供信息，并有助于理解非法律因素如何影响陪审团的决策。结果将阐明受害者影响陈述如何以及何时导致有偏见的决定，并可能为法院提供信息，指导它们如何在其管辖范围内接受VIS。研究结果将广泛传播，并将建立一个关于死刑判决笔录的大型数据库，供其他研究人员使用。

The U.S. Supreme Court has warned that the inflammatory nature of victim impact statements (VIS) could lead to capricious sentencing judgments and the purpose of the research is to examine conditions under which the emotional VIS affects sentencing decisions in capital cases. Basic research on emotion suggests that negative emotions do not uniformly affect decision making. While anger can reduce depth of information processing and promote biased decisions, sadness can promote systematic processing and facilitate objective decision making. Thus, the potential for VIS to influence juror sentencing decisions might depend on whether jurors experience sadness or anger in response to VIS. The first study examines VIS from actual capital cases. For descriptive analyses, method of VIS delivery, number length of VIS testimony, and emotional content of VIS will be examined. Content analysis of VIS will be done to assess the emotions typically expressed by victims, and whether angry or sad VIS predicts sentencing decisions. The second study manipulates sadness and anger (using VIS obtained in Study 1) and measures the effect of these specific emotions on sentencing decisions and information.Little research has examined the effects of specific negative emotions on juror information processing and decision making. The results of these studies will contribute to basic theory on the effects of emotions on decision making. Furthermore, results will inform the applied field of psycho-legal science and aid in understanding of how non-legal factors influence jury decision making.Results will shed light on how and when victim impact statements lead to biased decisions, and may provide the courts with information to guide how they accept VIS in their jurisdictions. Research results will be disseminated broadly, and a large database of capital sentencing transcripts will be created and made available to other researchers.