Can a Different View Cause a Different Verdict?
D
r. Debra Worthington, an Associate Professor in the Communication and Journalism department, just concluded a research project to answer this question. Dr. Worthington worked with a legal research company named Litigation Insights and the law firm Evert, Weathersby and Hoff to find out if a different camera angle could make a difference in a juror’s verdict in a court case.
Together they made stimulus materials by hiring actors to film two versions of depositions from actual civil trials. In one version the camera was on just the witness, and the other both the attorney and the witness were seen. This was to answer their main research question, “If you can see both or just one, would this affect how the information is perceived?”
Their research showed that there is some difference dependent on the camera angle. It turned out that the people who see both appeared to be more open minded and see all the evidence.
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