Don't be Happy, Worry: Positive Mood, but not Anxiety, Increases Stereotyping in a Mock-Juror Decision-Making Task

Abstract

Moods and emotions have the potential to influence the decisions made by jurors.Two theories predict that when people are anxious they will rely more on stereotypes when evaluating other people. However, research results have been equivocal as to whether anxiety increases the use of stereotypes in evaluations of other people. Study 1 (N = 127) and Study 2 (N = 279) used a juror decision-making task to examine whether anxiety would increase the application of stereotypes, and it did not. However, the same task in Study 3 (N = 195) detected increased stereotyping by happy participants. These findings support conclusions that anxiety may not increase stereotyping in social judgments to the extent previously believed. Because of this, there is little cause for worry on the part of those involved in the legal system that anxiety experienced by jurors will lead them to make biased judgments based on social stereotypes.

More Inaccurate But Not More Biased: Anxiety During Encoding Impairs Face Recognition Accuracy But Does Not Moderate the Own‐Ethnicity Bias

“…Nor did we find evidence that potential anxiety‐related stereotyping improved person memory for out‐group members, which may decrease the OEB. Instead our results are consistent with recent studies which have suggested that anxiety does not increase the use of stereotypes in social judgments (e.g., Curtis, ; Curtis & Locke, , ). However, given the apparent readiness with which people tend to categorize out‐group members and activate relevant stereotypes (Macrae et al, ; Mason, Cloutier & Macrae, ), it seems likely that ethnic categories and associated stereotypes are already highly activated during typical OEB tasks.…”

“…They were told that the speech would occur at the end of the experiment (i.e., after the face‐recognition task) and that the speech would be recorded on video and would be evaluated by their peers. This anxiety manipulation has been used successfully to increase participants' anxiety in previous studies (e.g., Curtis, ). Control participants were told that they would be viewing and anonymously evaluating other participants' speeches, but that they would not be giving a speech themselves.…”

“…In the context of person‐perception, several studies suggest that anxiety increases the use of stereotypes when evaluating other people (Wilder & Shapiro, , ). However, these studies have been criticized for using members of laboratory‐created groups as person‐perception targets, rather than groups with well‐learned stereotypes (see Curtis, ; Curtis & Locke, ). Moreover, more recent studies, using targets from groups with established stereotypes have found no evidence that anxiety increases stereotyping; in some cases these more recent studies employed identical anxiety manipulations to earlier studies (Curtis, ; Curtis & Locke, , ).…”

Effects of Happiness on Gender Stereotyping in Social Perception

“…While the reasoning behind Supreme Court's ultimate decision to uphold the constitutionality of the ACA is likely to be multifaceted, Malphurs and Drescher's (2012) findings shed light on how a positive courtroom atmosphere, induced by humor and laughter, can influence the rulings. In regard to stereotyping, a defense attorney may use humor when presenting his arguments to induce a positive mood among the jury who, in turn, may show leniency towards a defendant who does not fit the gender-crime stereotype (Curtis, 2013).…”