Date of Submission

5-4-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Advisor

Kimberly Creig

Keywords

religious beliefs, sentencing decisions, anchoring and adjustment heurisictic

LCSH

eligion, criminal procedure

Abstract

Religious beliefs and values often color people’s perceptions and interpretations of the world around them. This research has explored the relationship between religion and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, with regard to how this affects sentencing decisions. The study served to determine whether certain beliefs held by participants – Catholicism and Wicca –along with the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, impact the sentence issued by a potential juror. Participants were undergraduate students from the University of New Haven who were provided with a vignette depicting an armed robbery and then issued their sentencing decision in years within the frame that they were given. Results highlighted no significant relationship between the religious views of the defendant and the impact of anchoring and adjustment on sentencing decisions issue by participants; however, the anchoring and adjustment heuristic alone did impact the decisions provided by participants.

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