Rafael Manuel López

The effect of information bias on the formation of impressions: courtroom implications

Purpose The ability to form impressions allows predicting future behaviour and assessing past conduct by facilitating decision making in different contexts. Both verbal cues (what we know about someone) and non-verbal cues (the emotion expressed) could modulate this process to a different degree. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between these variables and their impact on the formation of impressions within criminal proceedings. Design/methodology/approach An experiment was conducted that involved 142 Mexican students, who evaluated emotional response (happiness, sadness, fear and anger) and personality (emotional stability, kindness, responsibility, sociability and creativity) through the facial expression of a Spanish child-murderer. Two groups were formed for comparative purposes, one of which was provided with information on the murderer (activated information (AI)), while the second group had no related information whatsoever (deactivated information (DI)). Findings The results recorded a higher score for happiness (p=0.037, η2=0.03) and anger (p=0.001, η2=0.08), and a lower one for sadness (p=0.002, η2=0.06), fear (p=0.002, η2=0.07), emotional stability (p<0.001, η2=0.09) responsibility (p<0.001, η2=0.10) and kindness (p=0.01, η2=0.05) in the AI condition compared to the DI condition. Originality/value The formation of impressions is an adaptive process that may be affected by variables that are complex and difficult to control, which within legal proceedings might bias court decisions and compromise the objectivity required of the judiciary.

Diferencias en el reconocimiento de las emociones en niños de 6 a 11 años

The ability to recognize emotions is necessary for the normal childs adjustment to the social and educational environment, and to identify disorders including autism, anxiety and depression in the early stages of development. An experiment was performed to understanding this process. The participants were 47 children distributed in three groups (6-7, 8-9. 10-11 years). Children had to see pictures of facial and corporal expressions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear. Participants were than asked to say if they recognized the facial and corporal expressed emotion, from a labels related to these basic emotions and represented by emoticons. The results showed enhanced recognition of facial and corporal expressions of fear in children of 811 years olds compared to those of 6-7 years olds (p .50). On the other hand, the result showed significant differences (p .50), between children of 6-7 and 8-11 years olds, in the recognition of facial expressions of anger than the corporal expressions of anger. Children of 6-7 years olds showed enhanced recognition of facial expression of anger than corporal expression of anger. These differences were reversed in children of 8-11 years olds. One may conclude that anger and fear facial expressions recognition is an important indicator of the proper development of children. Emotional learning from 7 years olds, will ensure better emotional regulation, and a beneficial effect on the childs performance in school.