Week 6 Post 2 - The Trial

A jurors role is to decide the facts on a case. However, jurors are people and are influenced by their prior knowledge, stereotypes, and just simple common sense. Pennington and Hastie established a cognitive story model, which displayed how some jurors may construct a narrative story model for themselves during a trial in an attempt to organize and interpret the evidence, then evaluating it within the story model. It is also shown through the elaboration likelihood model that there are 2 distinct routes taken when evaluating the evidence- Central and Peripheral. The peripheral route often occurs when a juror has a positive stereotype of the defendant, making them less likely to think through the evidence. This route is also taken when they simply have little connection or cares in regards to the crime. The central route is more thinking and elaboration, questioning the evidence and seeking more knowledge in order to have a well-rounded view of the case.
This relates to the psychology of criminal justice because the jury is vital in many cases, which can all be based off of how people are thinking and their prior knowledge. The models give an insight as to some things jurors may be thinking, or why some do more critical thinking than others.