Sociological Study - Essay Example

The ethnic composition of the sample was skewed towards Anglo-Americans (73%), with a representation of also African-American (12%), Hispanic-American (7%), Asian-American (5%), and American Indian (3%). All participants were working at least part-time jobs and had completed high school. The informed consent form will be read out loud to each participant, as well as being printed in English. All participants shall be assured of their rights to confidentiality, anonymity, and voluntary withdrawal without penalty. It was emphasized to the participants that no personal information would connect them with their responses, as code numbers would be used to de-identify all information that they provided. When each participant acknowledges that they understand the requirements of them the study they will be asked to sign the consent form.

Each booklet presented media materials that emphasized the act as either “political” or “religious” in the text of the articles (e.g., “Terrorism and Religion” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Vol. 20, November 2001). The final page of each booklet contained questions to measure: 1) juror perceptions of the defendant’s guilt (i.e., using a 3-point Likert scale: 1 = Not Guilty, 2 = Part Guilty, or 3 = Guilty); and 2) to measure juror perceptions of the defendant’s ethnic heritage after viewing photographs included with the media coverage (i.e., using categories: American, Arabic, Asian, or European). For ease of scoring only one defendant for each terror, the act was highlighted in the media coverage. This study used a 2 (female or male jurors) x 2 (Political or Religious terror acts) design. The independent variables were gender and type of terror act. The dependent variables were the jurors’ perceptions of the defendant’s guilt and ethnicity.

Participants arrived at the lab in groups of 50, and were divided into two groups based on gender, and then randomly assigned to either the “Political” or “Religious” terror act group by drawing numbers from a hat. The two groups were gathered into separate rooms. Each participant was given a booklet to read and to answer the two questions when they were satisfied they had perused the material provided. Participants were informed that they had an hour and a half to read through the articles and to answer the questions. All participants were asked not to talk to each other at any time during the study. A research investigator was present in each lab to answer questions that jurors may have had. When each participant had completed their questions they were met by another researcher outside the lab and debriefed, so that the purpose of the study was explained to them and any questions they had were answered. The participant was also provided with a website address on which they could view summarise of the final results after the thesis was submitted.