System Justification and Normative Influence: Jury Decision-Making in a Police Shooting Trial

Abstract

This study investigated whether normative influence (i.e., arguments to conform to the group) was related to jurors' system justification (SJS) beliefs (i.e., beliefs that justify a racially disparaging societal status quo) and time pressure during the deliberation phase of a mock criminal trial. Given the traumatic colonial context that exists between Indigenous communities in Canada and the police, as well as the current disproportionalities of Indigenous people in the Canadian criminal justice system, jurors with lower SJS may be compelled to use normative influence to persuade other jurors to conform to their verdict preference for an Indigenous defendant who raised a claim of self-defence for the killing of a police officer. Further, past research has found a relation between time pressure and normative influence. Thus, lower SJS and time nearing the end of the deliberation were hypothesized to be related to greater normative discussion content. Deliberations were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for 11 mock juries (N = 83 jurors) in a simulated first-degree murder trial. Findings did not support a relationship between normative influence and either SJS or time. This research may bear implications for our understanding of jury decision-making processes and how to instruct jurors.