Abstract
Studies of juror decisions regarding pain and suffering awards in product liability litigation tend to show substantial variability across participants. A possible explanation is that jurors do not have a useful metric for assessing pain and suffering. A study was conducted to explore effects of providing day-rate suggestions on such decisions. Day rate refers to giving information about remaining life expectancy in days and suggesting a value to assign per day. Four scenarios describing product-related accidents were presented to 134 participants. Seven day-rate conditions were employed for each scenario: a no day-rate control; five day rates consisting of $1, $50, $100, $200 and $1000; and a multiple day rate condition that described four alternative rates. Results showed a significant day-rate effect, with higher rates resulting in higher awards. Variability of awards was greater in the no day-rate condition than in day-rate conditions with similar award levels. This finding is consistent with the notion that jurors are susceptible to monetary award suggestions. Implications for “biases” in pain and suffering award decisions are discussed.
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