Drawing upon your knowledge of theories and research in person perception, discuss some factors that may influence juries in courtroom trials.

... Drawing upon your knowledge of theories and research in person perception, discuss some factors that may influence juries in courtroom trials. For many years social psychologists have had a great interest in how human beings process information, how they make inferences and decisions about the behaviours and motivations of others, and also how events are interpreted and perceived. According to Nisbett & Ross, (1985, cited in Atkinson, Atkinson, Smith, Bem & Hilgard, 1990) people do this rather like informal scientists. Data is observed and collected, judgements are then made about what information fits with other existing information and finally an attempt is made to evaluate the cause of an event happening. These informal theories according to Atkinson et al, (1990) work quite well most of the time, however they contain a number of systematic errors and the resulting social judgement can sometimes be faulty. The authors go on to note that

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