The Impact of an Aggressive Juror in Six- and Twelve-Member Juries

Abstract

One hundred seventy high school seniors were randomly assigned to five juries of each of the following types: 6 members, 12 members, 5 members plus confederate, or 11 members plus confederate. The confederate was trained to argue forcefully for the guilt of the defendant in a fictional case involving a fellow student. The 6- and 12-member juries did not differ in the proportion of guilty verdicts assigned. The 5-member and 11-member juries both yielded in the direction of the assertive confederate; however, the effect was more pronounced in the smaller jury. While there are several limitations of this experiment as an analogue for actual juries, the present results suggest that there may be serious risks in reducing jury size below the traditional panel of 12.

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