Nebashi Reiko    Department   Undergraduate School  , School of Information and Communication    Position   Professor
Language	English
Publication Date	2007/12
Type	Academic Journal
Peer Review	Peer reviewed
Title	The influence of race, heuristics, and information load on judgments of guilt and innocence
Contribution Type	Co-authored (other than first author)
Journal	Communication Studies
Journal Type	Another Country
Volume, Issue, Page	58(4),pp.341-358
Author and coauthor	◎Ron Tamborini, Ren-He Huang, Dana Mastro, & Reiko Nabashi-Nakahara
Details	This study applies the heuristic-systematic model to explore the influence of race and judicial-system heuristics on jury decision-making. In a mock-jury investigation, a 3  2 experimental design varied a trial description’s information load (high, medium, low) and defendant's race (Caucasian, African American). Two participant groups (Caucasian, African American) judged defendant characteristics and guilt. Observations demonstrate that race and legal-system heuristics alter guilt judgments. First, although Caucasian judgments were unaffected by race, an accused African American benefited from disproportionately positive judgments by African American appraisers. Second, information load moderated heuristic influence on guilt judgments. High load strengthened the negative effect of perceived judicial-system bias on verdicts of innocence.