{"title":"Contrasting guilty minds: Exposure to contrast concepts narrows conceptions of acting knowingly and recklessly.","authors":"Christian Mott, Larisa Heiphetz Solomon","doi":"10.1037/xap0000547","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When one person harms another, the way lay jurors describe the perpetrator's mental state-whether they acted \"knowingly\" or \"recklessly\"-can significantly affect their culpability under U.S. criminal law. Five studies conducted in Fall 2017 show that the meanings of these crucial legal terms can shift depending on whether the jury instructions mention an alternative mental state. In Studies 1-3, lay participants, acting as mock jurors, were less likely to say an agent caused a harm \"knowingly\" when they could instead describe the person as acting \"recklessly\"-a less severe but still culpable state of mind. This pattern emerged whether or not participants received legal definitions of these terms. In Study 4, mock jurors were less likely to say an agent acted \"knowingly\" when \"recklessly\" appeared in the jury instructions as a contrast, even when they did not have any way to attribute the contrast term to the agent. In Study 5, mock jurors were also less likely to say an agent acted \"recklessly\" when the possibility of acting \"negligently\" appeared in the jury instructions. These studies provide evidence that \"knowingly\" and \"recklessly\" are <i>contrast sensitive</i>-that is, their meanings can shift based on what contrast concept is salient. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Psychology-Applied","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Experimental Psychology-Applied","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000547","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
When one person harms another, the way lay jurors describe the perpetrator's mental state-whether they acted "knowingly" or "recklessly"-can significantly affect their culpability under U.S. criminal law. Five studies conducted in Fall 2017 show that the meanings of these crucial legal terms can shift depending on whether the jury instructions mention an alternative mental state. In Studies 1-3, lay participants, acting as mock jurors, were less likely to say an agent caused a harm "knowingly" when they could instead describe the person as acting "recklessly"-a less severe but still culpable state of mind. This pattern emerged whether or not participants received legal definitions of these terms. In Study 4, mock jurors were less likely to say an agent acted "knowingly" when "recklessly" appeared in the jury instructions as a contrast, even when they did not have any way to attribute the contrast term to the agent. In Study 5, mock jurors were also less likely to say an agent acted "recklessly" when the possibility of acting "negligently" appeared in the jury instructions. These studies provide evidence that "knowingly" and "recklessly" are contrast sensitive-that is, their meanings can shift based on what contrast concept is salient. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍:
The mission of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied® is to publish original empirical investigations in experimental psychology that bridge practically oriented problems and psychological theory. The journal also publishes research aimed at developing and testing of models of cognitive processing or behavior in applied situations, including laboratory and field settings. Occasionally, review articles are considered for publication if they contribute significantly to important topics within applied experimental psychology. Areas of interest include applications of perception, attention, memory, decision making, reasoning, information processing, problem solving, learning, and skill acquisition.