Article

The psychology of telling murder stories: do we think in scripts, exemplars, or prototypes?†

  1. Richard L. Wiener Ph.D., M.L.S.‡,*,
  2. Tracey L. Richmond M.S.§,
  3. Hope M. Seib M.S.,
  4. Shannon M. Rauch M.S.‖,
  5. Amy A. Hackney M.S.††

Article first published online: 18 APR 2002

DOI: 10.1002/bsl.476

Issue

Behavioral Sciences & the Law

Behavioral Sciences & the Law

Special Issue: Current Directions

Volume 20, Issue 1-2, pages 119–139, January - April 2002

Additional Information

How to Cite

Wiener, R. L., Richmond, T. L., Seib, H. M., Rauch, S. M. and Hackney, A. A. (2002), The psychology of telling murder stories: do we think in scripts, exemplars, or prototypes?. Behav. Sci. Law, 20: 119–139. doi: 10.1002/bsl.476

Author Information

  1. Department of Psychology, Baruch College, City University of New York, 1 Bernard Baruch Way, 8-215, New York, NY 10010, U.S.A.

  1. ‡

    Dr Wiener is chair and professor of psychology, Baruch and Brooklyn Colleges, City University of New York.

  2. §

    Tracey Richmond, Hope Seib, Shannon Rauch, and Amy A. Hackney are graduate students at St. Louis University.

  3. Tracey Richmond, Hope Seib, Shannon Rauch, and Amy A. Hackney are graduate students at St. Louis University.

  4. ‖

    Tracey Richmond, Hope Seib, Shannon Rauch, and Amy A. Hackney are graduate students at St. Louis University.

  5. ††

    Tracey Richmond, Hope Seib, Shannon Rauch, and Amy A. Hackney are graduate students at St. Louis University.

*Department of Psychology, Baruch College, City University of New York, 1 Bernard Baruch Way, 8-215, New York, NY 10010, U.S.A.

  1. †

    This research was supported by grant No. SBR 9515451 from the National Science Foundation. The authors thank Linda E. Hurt, Brenda Russell, and Patricia Pound for their help in collecting and collating the data reported in this manuscript.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 18 APR 2002
  2. Article first published online: 18 APR 2002
  3. Manuscript Revised: 20 JUN 2001
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 20 JUN 2001
  5. Manuscript Received: 14 FEB 2001

Funded by

  • National Science Foundation. Grant Number: SBR 9515451

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Abstract

According to the story model of Pennington and Hastie, jurors collect information at trial and modify it with general knowledge to create case stories. Schank and Ableson argue that human memory is organized to tell and understand stories. However, Finkel and Groscup questioned the use of manipulated, experimenter-constructed narratives to demonstrate the existence of multiple prototypical crime stories. We interviewed 76 jury eligible, death qualified citizens and asked them to imagine a first-degree murder scenario, describing the events that led to the killing. We coded the presence of dichotomous variables in the resulting stories and identified at least three shared story prototypes using cluster and profile analysis. We conclude that people do not store crime stories as simple prototypes and comment on the implications of this finding for legal decision-making. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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