Effects of Inadmissible Evidence and Level of Judicial Admonishment to Disregard on the Judgments of Mock Jurors¹

Abstract

The effects of inadmissible evidence on the judgments of mock jurors were examined in a 2 × 3 design. Subjects ( N = 168) read a trial transcript in which critical testimony was introduced either by the prosecution or by the defense and subsequently ruled admissible, ruled inadmissible, or ruled inadmissible with an admonishment by the judge to disregard that testimony. A Control condition in which the critical testimony was omitted was also run. Results indicated that judgments of the defendant's guilt were strongly influenced by the critical testimony when it was ruled admissible. When it was simply ruled inadmissible, the critical testimony had little effect on the guilt judgments. However, when the judge specifically admonished the jurors to disregard the inadmissible testimony, their verdicts were influenced in the direction of that testimony. Further, subjects in the Inadmissible With Admonishment conditions indicated a significantly greater desire to be allowed to consider the inadmissible testimony than did subjects in the Inadmissible Without Admonishment conditions. The results were interpreted in terms of psychological reactance (Brehm, 1966).