Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
Spring 2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department
Department of Psychology
Advisor(s)
Kethera A. Fogler
Daniel D. Holt
Jaime L. Kurtz
Abstract
Moral disengagement refers to how individuals rationalize the decisions they make, especially if they may be immoral or difficult. Individuals can be primed to engage in moral disengagement through the use of specific language. The current study analyzed language strategies used in closing statements of real capital murder cases to investigate which are correlated with a death penalty sentence. Because jurors are responsible for sentencing another individual to death, they may have some difficulty making such a decision. The current study found that future dangerousness and empathetic language were significantly correlated to jurors sentencing the death to the death penalty. This finding suggests that there are types of language strategies that may reduce the guilt associated with jurors’ death penalty decisions.
Recommended Citation
Parker, Megan J., "Be careful what you say: The relationship between prosecutorial language in closing statements and sentencing outcomes in real capital cases" (2017). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019. 361.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/361
