PSYC 3310 Psychology and Law-surrounding social distancing

Consider the list of possible research questions below and choose one to explore and answer with original psychological research. For your essay, you will need to draw on research not discussed in the lecture or textbook that can help to answer your research question. Be sure to prepare a clear thesis statement to answer your research question and discuss 6 academic research articles in detail. The research can include original empirical studies (e.g., experiments), book chapters, meta-analyses, or literature reviews. Your academic sources do not have to be
Canadian but they should be published within the past 10 years or so. If you would like to write on a different topic or if you would like to modify one of suggested topics, please reach out for instructor approval.

a) Many people consume news from social media, often filtered through echo chambers and commentary from friends and family. When this information pertains to a criminal case, exposure to social media may contaminate potential jury members and compromise their ability to judge the case impartially. Explain how social media can affect jury impartiality and whether high profile criminal trials can ever have a completely unbiased jury in the age of social media.

b) Over the past year and a half, COVID-19 has required many of us to adapt to new ways of interacting socially, including the rapid implementation of new laws surrounding social distancing, mask use, and vaccines. Although most people complied with these new laws, some complied with only a few of them, and others were quite oppositional to such changes. Drawing on the literature surrounding why people obey the law, explain why people might or might not have complied with these new laws.

c) Police interrogation often relies on assumptions about deception detection and the way that people might look, act, or behave when they are lying. This is often based on faulty assumptions about emotional display and can be problematic when the suspect is neuroatypical or from a different culture. Describe the research on deception detection built into police investigations, how this might lead police to detect deception in an innocent suspect, and how this may be compounded in neurodiverse or culturally diverse populations. What recommendations would you make to improve police interviewing and interrogations to reduce the chance of detecting “deception due to difference”?