Mock juror decision-making and modern racism: An examination of the role of task and target specificity on judgmental evaluations

Current social and legal constraints tend to preclude the overt expression of racism in America thereby causing its expression to take a more subtle form (termed modern racism). Studies of modern racism suggest that white Americans express their racist tendencies only in situations which they perceive to be ambiguous enough to warrant a non-racial interpretation. This paper reviews the findings of four studies on juror decision-making which also suggest that ambiguity, as represented by target and task specificity, affect the expression of racism. Studies 1, 2, and 3 indicate that the guilt decisions of white mock jurors are effected by the manipulation of task specificity (represented by the inclusion or non-inclusion of standard jury instructions) and target specificity (represented by the social status of the defendant). That is, jurors rated the black defendant guiltier than the white defendant, but only if instructions were absent (i.e., low task specificity). Additionally, low social status defendants were rated significantly guiltier than high social status defendants regardless of race. Study 4, consequently, examined the effect of manipulating task and target specificity simultaneously. Subjects were asked to read a murder trial transcript in which defendant race (i.e., black or white) and social status (i.e., high, low, neutral, no information) were manipulated. In addition, half of the subjects were given instructions specifying their responsibilities and duties (high task specificity) while the other half were provided with no instructions to evaluate the guilt of the defendant (low task specificity). Results indicated that the low social status defendant was again rated as guiltier than the high social status defendant, regardless of race or the level of task specificity. However, when no social status information was provided, and task specificity was low, the black defendant was rated guiltier than the white defendant. As in study 1, this finding dissipated when task specificity was increased. The above results are discussed with regard to the theory of modern racism