Dixon

• What was the background(Dixon): Part 1?

  1. Confidence of witness

  • Pedrod and Cutler found that when a witness was 100% confident the jury was more persuaded than when witness was 80% confident

  2. Race

  • Stewart found that in real USA cases black offenders were given a longer sentence than white ones for the same crime
  • Pfeifer and Ogloff did a mock trial and found that students rated black "offenders" as more guilty than white
• What was the background(Dixon): Part 2?

  3. Halo effect

  • Stewart found that when 60 photos of criminals were shown, those who ppnts found attractive were given a smaller sentence

  4. Accents

  • Kalin found that standard accents are rated more positively than non-standard accents
• What was the aim(Dixon)?

  To investigate the influence of and english regional accent and the brummie accent on listener's attribution of guilt

  (Also examined effects of race and type of crime)
• What was the sample(Dixon)?

  119 white undergrad students
• What was the method(Dixon)?

  Lab experiment using independent measures design

  IVs:

  • Accent type (brummie or standard)
  • Race (black or white)
  • Type of crime (Blue collar-armed robbery or White collar- fraud)

  DV: attribution of guilt on a 7 point scale
• What was the procedure(Dixon)?

  Ppnts listened to a 2 min recording of a transcript (based on a real life case)

  In all the conditions this conversation was between a middle-aged police officer and a young male suspect

  A matched guise procedure was used to manipulate accents

  Race was manipulated by varying racial cues provided

  In the recording the officer gave a description of the suspect which was systematically altered across conditions

  Then the suspect level of guilt was rated on a 7 point scale
• What were the results(Dixon)?

  The brummie accent was rated lower in superiority than the standard

  The brummie accent was rated as more guilty than the standard

  There was a significant 3 way interaction: Brummie accent/black/blue collar crime
• What were the conclusions(Dixon)?

  Attribution of guilt may be affected by accent in british context

  Non-standard speakers were perceived as guiltier than standard speakers

  Suspects accused of a blue-collar crime who are black and speak with a brummie accent are likely to be perceived as guilty

  A suspects perceived superiority and attractiveness may predicts whether they are guilty or not guilty