What Will You Trust? Will Severity of Crime Influence How Evidence is Used During Conviction?

Abstract

There has long been a debate regarding how much weight jurors place on circumstantial evidence. Research has shown that individuals consistently misunderstand and undervalue circumstantial evidence and place too much value on direct evidence, despite it being unreliable in a variety of circumstances (e.g., false testimony; unreliable eyewitness accounts). This thesis explores the psychological basis for this undervaluation and discusses some potential interventions that could limit this bias. I use three different outcomes of a liquor store robbery and presenting individuals with one piece of circumstantial evidence and one piece of direct evidence to explore whether the severity of a crime affects the way that individuals weigh circumstantial versus direct evidence. However, I found that individuals do not change the influence of evidence based on the severity of a crime.