Suppressing sympathy and compassion distorts jury verdicts
By Larry Delano Coleman, Esq.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120315110416.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
Mandatory Jury instructions command jurors to suppress feelings of sympathy or compassion in reaching their verdict. Such instructions leave jurors only with feelings of antipathy or dispassion to the pending legal dispute, making them all-the-more amenable to rendering verdicts that are, necessarily, inhumane or immoral.
Sympathy and compassion are important components of human nature. So, any command to suppress them triggers “cognitive dissonance” in those components—turning them off. This process distorts jurors and their verdicts, in that only antipathy and dispassion—contrary human attributes-- are given unfettered sway in jury trials.
What is true for jury trials is also true for life well beyond, as reflected in the research article above.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
SUPPRESSING SYMPATHY AND COMPASSION DISTORTS JURY VERDICTS
Suppressing sympathy and compassion distorts jury verdicts
By Larry Delano Coleman, Esq.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120315110416.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
Mandatory Jury instructions command jurors to suppress feelings of sympathy or compassion in reaching their verdict. Such instructions leave jurors only with feelings of antipathy or dispassion to the pending legal dispute, making them all-the-more amenable to rendering verdicts that are, necessarily, inhumane or immoral.
Sympathy and compassion are important components of human nature. So, any command to suppress them triggers “cognitive dissonance” in those components—turning them off. This process distorts jurors and their verdicts, in that only antipathy and dispassion—contrary human attributes-- are given unfettered sway in jury trials.
What is true for jury trials is also true for life well beyond, as reflected in the research article above.