Does the Information Complexity Given to Saiban-ins (Mixed Court Jurors) Increase their Dependency on the Judges' Opinion ? : Effects of Cognitive Overload on Legitimate Power of Judges on Judgments of Saiban-in

Abstract

"Saiban-in" (mixed court juror) system is an original Japanese system which will start on 2009. This study examined the effects of cognitive overload on the legitimate power of judge's guilty opinion through 3-person group decision making. To operate cognitive load, two types of crime description differing in lengths (20 pages and 7 pages) were prepared. The results suggested that participants in cognitive overload condition who had read 20-page crime description were more prone to the judge's guilty opinion, suggesting that judge's legitimate power increases when mixed court jurors are cognitively overloaded. We concluded that decreasing cognitive load in mixed court is critical for the mixed court to function satisfactorily.