The Role of Emotions in Comparative Negligence Judgments¹

Abstract

This experiment studied the role of emotional arousal in mediating the impact of plaintiff and defendant blameworthiness and accident severity on comparative negligence judgments. Participants (N= 214) read descriptions and viewed photographs of 2 accident cases varying in outcome severity, victim blameworthiness, and defendant blameworthiness. Participants then rated their emotional responses to the cases, apportioned fault between the parties, and assessed gross and discounted damages. Blameworthiness and outcome severity affected apportionment of fault, and the effects of blameworthiness and severity appeared to be mediated by the arousal of anger toward the parties. Damage awards were determined primarily by the severity of the accident and were not mediated by emotional arousal.

Is this Injury Reasonable? Do Psychological Injury Expectations Affect Mock Jurors' Legal Decisions in a Sexual Harassment Case?

“…This result is consistent with legal instructions and outcome severity research (Feigenson et al, 1997(Feigenson et al, , 2001A.C. Smith & Greene, 2005;Wissler et al, 1997;Woody, 2008).…”

“…Unlike liability judgments, injury severity should influence compensatory damage awards -jurors should award larger sums of money to return more severely injured complainants back to their pre-injury state. Consistent with legal requirements, physical injury severity is often positively related to damage decisions (Feigenson, Park, & Salovey, 2001;Wissler, Evans, Hart, Morry, & Saks, 1997), exerting a stronger impact on damage than negligence decisions (Robbennolt, 2000).…”

Does the Onset Controllability of Diagnostic Labels Affect the Perceived Appropriateness of an Insanity Verdict?1

“…Although Feigenson et al (1997Feigenson et al ( , 1998 discuss their results in temis ofblaming the victim, the same cannot be said of the study reported here, given that the vignettes described the perpetrator alone and not the victim of the homicide. In the description of the arson, no mention is made of victims, although participants may have inferred that no one was hurt, given that the warehouse was described as "abandoned."…”

“…In a follow-up study, Feigenson et al (1998) found that anger, but not sympathy, toward the parties mediated the relationships between an accident's severity and a party's blameworthiness on mock jurors' determinations of fault. These findings are analogous to those reported here, in which anger.…”

The Effect of Acknowledging Mock Jurors' Feelings on Affective and Cognitive Biases: It Depends on the Sample

“…Although researchers have recently shown an increased interest in the biasing role affective information has in legal decision‐making (see, generally, Bornstein & Wiener, ; as well as Feigenson, ; Feigenson, Park, & Salovey, ; Hastie, ), relatively few studies have tested interventions to correct for emotionally based bias in legal contexts. In one of these, Kramer, Kerr, and Carroll () tested three methods of countering the biasing impact of pre‐trial publicity: judicial instructions, deliberations, and a continuance.…”