Judgement and memory of a criminal act: The effects of stereotypes and cognitive load

Abstract

The study investigated participants' judgements of the defendant's guilt, severity of punishment and memory of information concerning a crime presented earlier, as a function of activated stereotype (positive versus negative) and cognitive load (i.e. self-paced versus quick processing pace). As hypothesized, it was found that judgement of guilt, punishment and memory were affected by the activated stereotype only under high-load conditions. Under these conditions, a negative stereotype of the defendant evoked higher estimates of guilt, harsher punishment and better memory of incriminating evidence than a positive stereotype, while there was no effect of stereotype valence in the low-load condition.