Effects of perspective taking on courtroom decisions

Four experiments examined the hypothesis that perspective taking with a defendant would lead to greater empathy, which would mediate lowered perceptions of culpability, with lowered culpability mediating a lower probability of guilt and recidivism. Experiments 1 and 2 established that perspective ta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of applied social psychology Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 303 - 318
Main Authors:	Skorinko, Jeanine L., Laurent, Sean, Bountress, Kaitlin, Nyein, Kyi Phyu, Kuckuck, Daniel
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Hoboken Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-04-2014 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:	Court decisions Empathy Experimental psychology Recidivism Social psychology
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Four experiments examined the hypothesis that perspective taking with a defendant would lead to greater empathy, which would mediate lowered perceptions of culpability, with lowered culpability mediating a lower probability of guilt and recidivism. Experiments 1 and 2 established that perspective taking leads to a lower probability of guilty verdicts and recidivism, mediated by a decreased perception of the defendant's culpability. Experiment 2 showed that it does so by increasing empathy. Experiment 3 showed that perspective taking also heightens the perception of culpability through increased empathy for the victim. Experiment 4 showed that decreased culpability is in part driven by leniency, which is also a function of empathy. We tie our findings into other research investigating links between empathy and perspective taking.
Bibliography:	ArticleID:JASP12222 istex:E4EBAD8AA7337E2EEA472ADE9F6E2011B7B927EF ark:/67375/WNG-24D9C46X-1
ISSN:	0021-9029 1559-1816
DOI:	10.1111/jasp.12222