Effects of liability information, severity of injury, and attitudes toward vengeance on compensatory and punitive damage awards

Abstract

An experiment was designed to explore the effects of presence of liability information, severity of injury, and attitudes toward vengeance on compensatory and punitive damage awards. Three-hundred-eleven individual mock jurors read a trial summary describing a plaintiff injured in a motor vehicle accident. Half of the participants read irrelevant liability information, and the other half did not. Half of each of the aforementioned groups read of a mildly injured plaintiff and the other half read of a severely injured plaintiff. All participants were told that liability had been determined in a prior hearing, and then they awarded the plaintiff compensatory damages and, if appropriate, punitive damages. Finally, participants answered questions addressing manipulation effectiveness and completed a measure of attitudes toward vengeance. Presence of liability information did not influence participants' compensatory damage awards or punitive damage awards. In accordance with legal theory, severity of the plaintiff's injury affected compensatory awards, and, in contrast with legal theory, severity of the plaintiffs injury affected punitive awards. Although revenge has played an integral part in the historical development of punitive damage awards, participants' attitudes toward vengeance had no effect on any dependent measure. Thus, jurors appear able to make civil legal decisions as the law dictates when presented with irrelevant liability information as well as when using evidence related to plaintiff injury to decide compensatory damages, and jurors do not appear to be motivated by revenge when deciding punitive damages. However, jurors seem affected by hindsight bias; they are unable ignore evidence regarding plaintiff injury when deciding punitive damages. Implications for the psychological and legal research communities were discussed as well as pragmatic legal ramifications both inside and outside the courtroom.