Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Preliminary Evidence for How the Behavioral Immune System Predicts Juror Decision-Making

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Evolutionary Psychological Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The behavioral immune system (BIS) is comprised of a variety of psychological and behavioral defenses designed to protect against pathogenic threats. These processes predict various affective and behavioral responses in myriad human contexts, including putative decisions to mitigate exposure to environmental pathogens. We investigated whether the strength of BIS responses predicted jurors’ verdicts in a sexual assault trial, wherein strength of the evidence against the defendant was manipulated (ambiguous vs. strong) to determine the extent to which chronic activation of BIS predicted derogation of the defendant. Subsequent mediation analyses indicated that dispositionally activated BIS (as indexed by perceived vulnerability to disease) predicted greater likelihood of conviction by way of affective experiences of disgust, which in turn influenced participants’ cognitive appraisals of diagnostic evidence. Furthermore, such responses also elicited greater desire for social distance with the defendant. Evidence strength, however, did not moderate these effects. Findings provide preliminary evidence for how BIS responses may influence legal proceedings.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ackerman, J. M., Becker, D. V., Mortensen, C. R., Sasaki, T., Neuberg, S. L., & Kenrick, D. T. (2009). A pox on the mind: disjunction of attention and memory in the processing of physical disfigurement. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 478–485. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.12.008.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Blader, S. L., & Tyler, T. R. (2003). A four-component model of procedural justice: defining the meaning of a “fair” process. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 747–758. doi:10.1177/0146167203252811.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bornstein, B. H., Golding, J. H., Neuschatz, J., Kimbrough, C., Reed, K., Magyarics, C., & Luecht, K. (2017). Mock juror sampling issues in jury simulation research: a meta-analysis. Law and Human Behavior, 41, 13–28. doi:10.1037/lhb0000223.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, C. J., & Inbar, Y. (2015). Disgust sensitivity predicts political ideology and policy attitudes in the Netherlands. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 27–38. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2072.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bright, D. A., & Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30, 183–202. doi:10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M., & Sacco, D. F. (2016). Avoiding extraverts: pathogen concern downregulates preferences for extraverted faces. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 2, 278–286. doi:10.1007/s40806-016-0064-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bushway, S. D., Redlich, A. D., & Norris, R. J. (2014). An explicit test of plea bargaining in the “shadow of the trial”. Criminology, 52, 723–754. doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12054.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crozier, W. E., Strange, D., & Loftus, E. F. (2017). Memory errors in alibi generation: how an alibi can turn against us. Behavioral Sciences and the Law. Advanced online publication. doi:10.1002/bsl.2273.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Curtis, V., de Barra, M., & Aunger, R. (2011). Disgust as an adaptive system for disease avoidance behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366, 389–401. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, L. A., & Schaller, M. (2009). Prejudicial attitudes toward older adults may be exaggerated when people feel vulnerable to infectious disease: evidence and implications. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 9, 97–115. doi:10.1111/j.1530-2415.2009.01188.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, L. A., Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2009). Perceived vulnerability to disease: development and validation of a 15-item self-report instrument. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 541–546. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.05.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, R. D. (1999). A presumption of innocence, not of even odds. Stanford Law Review, 52, 873–887.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, B. L. (2011). Convicting the innocent: where criminal prosecutions go wrong. Boston: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J., & Hersh, M. A. (2001). Sexual morality: The cultures and emotions of conservatives and liberals. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 191–221.

  • Haselton, M. G., & Nettle, D. (2006). The paranoid optimist: an integrative evolutionary model of cognitive biases. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 47–66. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr1001_3.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horberg, E. J., Keltner, D., Oveis, C., & Cohen, A. B. (2009). Disgust and the moralization of purity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 963–976. doi:10.1037/a0017423.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ihme, J. M., & Mitte, K. (2009). Measuring state disgust: evaluation of a German state disgust scale. European Journal of Personality Assessment, 25, 150–156. doi:10.1027/1015-5759.25.3.150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A., & Fitness, J. (2008). Moral hypervigilance: the influence of disgust sensitivity in the moral domain. Emotion, 8, 613–627. doi:10.1037/a0013435.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lakens, D. (2017). Equivalence tests: a practical primer for t-tests, correlations, and meta-analyses. Retrived from PsyArXiv Preprints, doi:10.1177/1948550617697177.

  • Lance, C. E. (1988). Residual centering, exploratory and confirmatory moderator analysis, and decomposition of effects in path models containing interactions. Applied Psychological Measurement, 12, 163–175. doi:10.1177/014662168801200205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marszalek, J. M., Barber, C., Kohlhart, J., & Holmes, C. B. (2011). Sample size in psychological research over the past 30 years. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 112, 331–348. doi:10.2466/03.11.PMS.112.2.331-348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, S. L., & Maner, J. K. (2011). Sick body, vigilant mind the biological immune system activates the behavioral immune system. Psychological Science, 22, 1467–1471. doi:10.1177/0956797611420166.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, S. L., & Maner, J. K. (2012). Overperceiving disease cues: the basic cognition of the behavioral immune system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1198–1213. doi:10.1037/a0027198.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Montoya, R. M., & Pittinsky, T. L. (2012). Individual variability in adherence to the norm of group interest predicts outgroup bias. Group Processes & Interpersonal Relations, 16, 173–191. doi:10.1177/1368430212450253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mortensen, C. R., Becker, D. V., Ackerman, J. M., Neuberg, S. L., & Kenrick, D. T. (2010). Infection breeds reticence: the effects of disease salience on self-perceptions of personality and behavioral avoidance tendencies. Psychological Science, 21, 440–447. doi:10.1177/0956797610361706.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2012). Threat(s) and conformity deconstructed: perceived threat of infectious disease and its implications for conformist attitudes and behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 180–188. doi:10.1002/ejsp.863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2016). The behavioral immune system: implications for social cognition, social interaction, and social influence. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 75–129. doi:10.1016/bs.aesp.2015.09.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neuberg, S. L., Kenrick, D. T., & Schaller, M. (2011). Human threat management systems: self-protection and disease avoidance. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 1042–1051. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.08.011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: a ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2, 175–220. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, J. H., Schaller, M., & Crandall, C. S. (2007). Pathogen-avoidance mechanisms and the stigmatization of obese people. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, 410–414. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.05.008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, D. N., Berry, M. A., & Gresley, J. L. (2015). Modeling the influence of situational and attitudinal variables on lay responses to violent sexual and non-sexual offenders. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 33, 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaller, M. (2015). The behavioral immune system. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), Handbook of evolutionary psychology (2nd ed., pp. 206–224). Hoboken: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2008). Pathogens, personality, and culture: disease prevalence predicts worldwide variability in sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 212–221. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.212.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2011). The behavioral immune system (and why it matters). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 99–103. doi:10.1177/0963721411402596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, D. (2012). In doubt: the psychology of the criminal justice process. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sommers, S. R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2001). White juror bias: an investigation of prejudice against Black defendants in the American courtroom. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 7, 201–229. doi:10.1037/1076-8971.7.1.201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terrizzi, J. A., Shook, N. J., & Ventis, W. L. (2010). Disgust: a predictor of social conservatism and prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuals. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 587–592. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.05.024.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terrizzi, J. A., Shook, N. J., & McDaniel, M. A. (2013). The behavioral immune system and social conservatism: a meta-analysis. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 99–108. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.10.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The People of the State of California v. Gregory Scott Haidl, Court of Appeal, 4th Appellate District, 3rd Div. (2010).

  • Thompson, A. M., Molina, O. R., & Levett, L. M. (2011). After exoneration: an investigation of stigma and wrongfully convicted persons. Albany Law Review, 75, 1373–1413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tybur, J. M., Lieberman, D., Kurzban, R., & DeScioli, P. (2013). Disgust: evolved function and structure. Psychological Review, 120, 65–84. doi:10.1037/a0030778.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tybur, J. M., Inbar, Y., Aarøe, L., Barclay, P., Barlow, F. K., De Barra, M., ... & Consedine, N. S. (2016). Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113, 12408–12413. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1607398113.

  • Zimmerman, D., Rodriguez, D., Bergold, A., & Penrod, S. (2016). The influence of pretrial exposure to community outrage and victim hardship on guilt judgments. Psychology, Crime & Law, 22, 435–454. doi:10.1080/1068316X.2015.1120870.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Southern Mississippi, Owings-McQuagge Hall 226, Hattiesburg, MS, 39401, USA

    Mitch Brown

  2. University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA

    Dario N. Rodriguez & Melissa A. Berry

  3. East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA

    Alyssa P. Gretak

Authors
  1. Mitch Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dario N. Rodriguez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Alyssa P. Gretak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Melissa A. Berry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mitch Brown.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Brown, M., Rodriguez, D.N., Gretak, A.P. et al. Preliminary Evidence for How the Behavioral Immune System Predicts Juror Decision-Making. Evolutionary Psychological Science 3, 325–334 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0102-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0102-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation