Jury Consultants: A Critical Look at Psychology Today

Even if jury selection remains a crapshoot, the process has come a long way since the days of Clarence Darrow, who counseled that Presbyterians are often "cold as the grave," Baptists even "more hopeless," while Irishmen are the opposite, "emotional, kindly and sympathetic"

In the current Psychology Today, the new science of jury selection gets a critical look in "Unnatural Selection," by Matthew Hutson--

Jury consulting has become a big business over the past three decades. Hundreds of firms now rake in several hundred million dollars a year. Many offer "scientific jury selection" services, deploying demographics, statistics, and social psychology to cull potential jurors and engineer the perfect panel of people. But as these gurus aim to extract sure verdicts from parties of unknowns, their grasp on the chemistry of human nature appears to require a working knowledge of alchemy . . .. Despite all the money and research poured into predicting and shaping jury decisions, to a large degree the state of the art remains just that: art.

The alchemists who practice the art, however, think it's more: they call it "applied psychology." About half of jury consultants are psychologists. The others are "hail from a variety of fields—business, law, marketing, communications, theater, statistics."

For anyone interested in jury selection, "Unnatural Selection" provides a good overview of how jury consultants work and what they're looking for in jurors.

Comments

[Eh Nonymous]

Biggest problem with the (probably simplified) methodology described:

Consultants "call up random people," ask them questions about their age/race/job/whatever, and THEN ask them substantive questions about the case.

Well, if that's what they're doing, they're idiots. First, you ask the question without priming them to answer "as a middle-class American," or "as a man," or "as a transgendered person," or "as a social worker." You find out what their actual predisposition is. Then you look for patterns - but if you do it carelessly, you'll wind up pushing preferences.

I can imagine a phone call:

Ma'am? Hello, I'd like to ask you a few questions.
Are you married?
Do you have kids?
Do you supervise them yourself, or do you have help?
Do you worry for their safety?
Now, having established that you're a concerned parent, what would you say in the following attractive nuisance case...

etc.