With the ubiquity of camera phones , CCTVs , and the increase movement of police officers wearing cameras when on tariff , the use of video footage in the court as grounds is speedily becoming standard recitation . But by slow down the footage to make thing well-fixed for jurywoman to see , it may be havingunintended consequencesin the courtroom .
investigator from the University of Chicago have found that by evince a panel a television of the crime only in slow motion , they were three fourth dimension more likely to convict the suspect of first - degree murder . This could obviously have profound impacts on the justice system , if those making these decisions are being unintentionally regulate .
The subject area , write in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , conduct a series of mock trials using voluntary . They take them to act as as a panel , and then played them a clip of a vehement crime record on CCTV in either real time or a slowed - down version . They see that those who were shown just the slow - gesture translation were 3.42 times more likely to get to a consentient execution verdict , compared to those who were point the even clip . Not only that , but when the experiment was repeat with the time shown in the corner , allowing the jury to know how much prison term had elapsed , they were still more likely to be biased .
One of the key component of determining someone ’s guilt for a violent crime or murder is whether or not there was intent in the natural process . The researchers mistrust that by slowing down the footage , it gives the jurors a sour common sense that the defendant had more clock time to think and debate over the act , making them believe that there was more enwrapped then there actually was at the fourth dimension . This , they advise , make the panel more probable to convict . When the mock panel was indicate both the regular clip and the slowed - down version , the effect was massively reduced , with them 1.5 times more probable to convict .
Interestingly , this core might not just be confined to the courtroom . The use of goods and services of slow - motion playback is now a staple in sportswoman , particularly when a referee is debate on a penalty . While it may seem like that this would make sports fairer , it could be having the opposite effect . The researchers found that the long time a referee had to consider over whether or not to penalize a player , their bias against the actor in question increase . Again , this is probably to do with the fact that with hindsight , the reviewer may think that the player should have behave otherwise .