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- All Subjects: Implicit Bias
- All Subjects: Impression Formation
- Creators: Feagan, Mathieu
- Creators: Fisher, Bobbi Paige
- Creators: Hamza, Cassandra
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Resource Type: Text
- Status: Published
realistic? The current study investigated the role of implicit and explicit social-cognitive biases in jurors’ conceptualizations of insanity, and the influence of those biases in juror verdict decisions. It was hypothesized that by analyzing the role of implicit and explicit biases in insanity defense cases, jurors’ attitudes towards those with mental illnesses and attitudes towards the insanity defense would influence jurors’ final verdict decisions. Two hundred and two participants completed an online survey which included a trial vignette incorporating an insanity defense (adapted from Maeder et al., 2016), the Insanity Defense Attitude Scale (Skeem, Louden, & Evans, 2004), Community Attitudes Towards the Mentally Ill Scale (Taylor & Dear, 1981), and an Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al., 1998). While implicit associations concerning mental illness and dangerousness were significantly related to mock jurors’ verdicts, they no longer were when explicit insanity defense attitudes were added to a more complex model including all measured attitudes and biases. Insanity defense attitudes were significantly related to jurors’ verdicts over and above attitudes about the mentally ill and implicit biases concerning the mentally ill. The potentially biasing impact of jurors’ insanity defense attitudes and the impact of implicit associations about the mentally ill in legal judgments are discussed.
In the US, underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities receive less than adequate health care in comparison to White Americans. This is attributed to multiple factors, including the long history of structural racism in the US and in the medical field in particular. A factor that is still prevalent today is the lack of diversity within the healthcare workforce. Racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in most healthcare occupations. Moreover, many physicians may continue to harbor implicit biases that may interfere with giving adequate care to patients of different backgrounds. We propose that diversity in healthcare should be increased through educational programs and a revamp of existing systems such as medical schools. The increased diversity would mitigate some of the health disparities that exist amongst minorities, as medical professionals are more likely to give adequate care to those who are members of the same community. Increased diversity would also help to increase the cultural competency of physicians as a whole.