Myths, Mental Illness, and the Insanity Defense

Chow, Emma

Myths, Mental Illness, and the Insanity Defense

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10456/59145

Author(s)

Chow, Emma

Date Issued

March 31, 2025

Abstract

There has been a lot of research investigating the relationship between jury decision-making and the insanity defense. Some research has also investigated the relationship between mental illness and jury decision-making. However, there is limited research on how belief in mental illness myths and insanity defense myths affect jury decision making. There is no research to date that incorporates all four of these concepts and how they affect jury decision-making. The purpose of this study was to address the gaps in the literature surrounding this issue. 53 participants completed the insanity defense myths survey followed by the attitudes towards mental illness survey. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of six trial summaries. After reading the summary, they were asked to provide a verdict (guilty, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity). Results revealed no statistically significant findings in this study regarding the presence and type of mental illness on verdict. There were also no statistically significant results regarding how belief in insanity defense myths or how belief in mental illness myths affect verdict. Future research should investigate how having multiple participants deliberate the verdict could change the outcome of these results. Future research should also investigate how the closeness of a person with a mental illness to the participant could impact the results.

Major

Psychology

Honors

Psychology, 2025

First Reader(s)

Normile, Christopher