The Impact of Pretrial Publicity and Need for Cognition on Mock-Jurors’ Decisions and Deliberation Behavior

This experiment explored whether negative pretrial publicity (N-PTP) and need for cognition (NC) affect mock-jurors’ decisions and deliberation behaviors (N = 169). Jurors and juries exposed to N-PTP were significantly more likely to render guilty verdicts than non-exposed jurors/juries. There was a significant PTP x NC interaction on post-deliberation individual verdicts. High-NC jurors exposed to N-PTP were less likely to vote guilty than their low-NC counterparts, suggesting a corrective function of NC on PTP bias. Hierarchical analyses revealed a significant PTP x NC interaction for juror deliberation behavior. For N-PTP jurors, those high in NC talked more and were rated higher on assertiveness, leadership, influence on verdicts, and presenting logical and strong arguments than those low in NC. For non-exposed jurors NC status did not significantly affect any of the deliberation behaviors coded. This research suggests that how and whether NC influences juror verdicts and deliberation behavior depends on case-related variables present.