Surname Effects in Judgments of Mock Jurors

Abstract

94 undergraduate students read a description of a legal case, involving either a theft or a murder, in which surname and occupational status of defendant were systematically varied. In addition to the nature of the crime, the surname of the defendant was associated with perceptions of the offence and the offender. Findings suggest that the connotations of a surname may influence judgments both by invoking stereotypes such as ethnicity and by semantic intrusion into the judgmental process.