White mock jurors' moral emotional responses to viewing female victim photographs depend on the victim's race.

Abstract

Objective: Jurors often see both premortem photographs of female murder victims before death and postmortem photographs after death. Postmortem photographs are often probative but might prejudicially heighten jurors' other-condemning emotions, such as anger and disgust. Premortem photographs are often not probative and might prejudicially heighten jurors' other-suffering emotions, such as sympathy and empathy. We examined how victim race changes the impact of pre-and postmortem photographs on participants' moral emotions and, in turn, their verdicts. Hypotheses: We hypothesized that seeing postmortem (vs. no) photographs would increase convictions through other-condemning emotions for White, but not Latina or Black, victims. We also hypothesized that seeing both pre-and postmortem (vs. only postmortem) photographs would further increase convictions through other-suffering emotions, again for White, but not Latina or Black, female victims. Method: White participants (N = 1,261) watched a murder trial video. We manipulated the victim's race (White, Black, or Latina) and whether participants saw no victim photographs, premortem photographs of a female victim, postmortem photographs of a female victim, or both pre-and postmortem photographs. Participants reported the emotions they felt during the trial and chose a verdict. Results: Seeing postmortem (vs. no) victim photographs increased White participants' guilty verdicts through other-condemning emotions when the female victim was White or Latina but not when she was Black. Seeing the combination of pre-and postmortem photographs increased White participants' convictions through othersuffering emotions when the victim was a White woman but not when she was Latina or Black. Conclusions: Attorneys and judges should consider that jurors' emotional reactions to victim photographs are felt selectively depending on the victim's race and could exacerbate racial biases in jurors' judgments. Public Significance StatementRather than closing racial empathy gaps and increasing mock jurors' moral emotional responses for all victims, presenting pre-and postmortem photographs of victims might exacerbate racial bias because White mock jurors selectively felt moral emotions on behalf of other White victims but not on behalf of Black and Latina victims. Although policies that allow for jurors to see premortem photographs of victims might be intended to humanize all victims, those policies might have the unintended consequence of increasing the disparities in the treatment of White victims and victims of color.