Articles

Are People Influenced by Trivial Details?

By Brad Bell

Imagine that you are juror in a criminal trial in which the defendant is accused of stealing a duffle bag from a gym.  One eyewitness is positive that the defendant took the bag, and the other eyewitness is positive that someone else took the bag.  The eyewitness for the prosecution was much more detailed in her testimony.  She described minor details, such as the can of Pepsi the culprit was drinking before taking the duffle bag.  Would you be influenced by the trivial details in the eyewitness testimony?

In their second experiment, Bell and Loftus (1989) had college students read a brief summary of a criminal court case with conflicting testimony.  The prosecution eyewitness stated that defendant was the person who committed the crime, and the defense eyewitness stated that the defendant was not the culprit.  The defense eyewitness testimony varied in degree of detail.   In a low detail version, the defense eyewitness described the store items that the culprit dropped as just “a few store items.”  In the high detail version, the defense eyewitness described the store items as “a box of Milk Duds and a can of Diet Pepsi.”  The prosecution eyewitness described the store items as just “a few store items.”  However, there were two versions for the prosecution eyewitness testimony,  In one version the prosecution eyewitness is not asked whether she can remember the store items mentioned by the defense eyewitness.  In the other version, she is asked if she can remember the store items, and she states that she cannot remember them.  When the prosecution eyewitness was not asked about the store items, there was no statistically significant effect of the trivial details on judgments of the defendant’s guilt.  In contrast, when mock jurors learned that the prosecution eyewitness could not remember the store items, there was a substantial effect of defense eyewitness detail on judgments of the defendant’s guilt.  When the prosecution eyewitness stated that she could not remember the store items, 6% rendered a guilty verdict in the high detail condition, and 47% rendered a guilty verdict in the low detail condition!  The persuasive impact of trivial details was referred to as trivial persuasion by Bell and Loftus.

The findings from the second experiment conducted by Bell and Loftus (1989) suggest that the impact of trivial details on judgment of guilt is due to inferences about memory.  The detail in the defense eyewitness testimony only influenced judgments of guilt when it was clear that the prosecution eyewitness could not remember the trivial details.  In this situation, the mock jurors may have been more likely to believe that the defense eyewitness had a better memory for the culprit’s face than the prosecution eyewitness. Moreover, the defense eyewitness was judged to have a better memory for the culprit’s face in the high detail condition than in the low detail condition.

Even details that are unrelated to the crime may be persuasive.  In their first experiment, Bell and Loftus (1989) found that unrelated details in the prosecution eyewitness testimony influences judgments of a defendant’s guilt.  The details pertained to the store items that a customer dropped prior to the crime.  It should be pointed out that some studies have not found trivial details to
be persuasive.  Some findings for the influence of details were not statistically significant.  For example, Bell and Jones (1994) found that the effects of minor details on judgments of honesty were not statistically significant in four studies.

Trivial persuasion may reflect a faulty belief about eyewitness testimony. Reporting trivial details may not indicate that a person has a good memory for a culprit’s face.  For example, Wells and Leippe (1981) found that people who made an accurate identification of a culprit were less accurate in their memory for peripheral details.


Although trivial details may influence judgments in some situations, more research is needed to gain a better understanding of the influence of trivial details.  It’s possible that trivial details may be persuasive in other contexts besides the courtroom.

References

Bell, B. E., & Loftus, E. F. (1989).  Trivial persuasion in the courtroom:
The power of (a few) minor details.  Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology
56, 669-679.
Bell, B. E., & Jones, J. B. (1994).  Providing minor details and the
perception of honesty:  Questioning the generality of trivial
persuasion.  Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior, 31, 26-29.
Wells, G. L., & Leippe, M. R.  (1981).  How do triers of fact infer
the accuracy of eyewitness identifications?  Using memory for
peripheral detail can be misleading.  Journal of Applied Psychology,
66, 682-687.

The Nature of Love

By Brad Bell

Love is an important concept in psychology.   Love is a word that could be defined in many different ways.   What do people believe love is?    What are the most important attributes of love? What types of love are the best examples of love?    These important questions may help us gain a better understanding of the psychology of love.

People’s Conceptions of Love

Love research findings may help in understanding love.  Some studies have addressed the concept of love.  These studies may provide us with a greater understanding of the meaning of love. In Fehr’s (1988) first study, participants were asked to list features of either love, commitment, or both.  Of the participants who listed features of love, the most frequently listed feature of love in this study was caring (43.75%).   The second most frequently listed feature was happiness (29.17%).   The third most frequently listed feature was want to be with other (28.13%).

In her second study, Fehr (1988) had participants provide judgments of features of either love or commitment.  They made these judgments with respect to how good of a feature they were of either love or commitment.   Trust had the highest average (mean) rating for love.  The attribute with the second highest average(mean) rating for love was caring.   Honesty had the third highest average (mean) rating for love. (1)

The findings above pertained to love in general.  However, there may be many types of love.  In their second study, Fehr and Russell (1991) had participants make judgments of twenty types of love with respect to how good examples they were of love.  The type of love with the highest average (mean) rating was maternal love.     Parental love was the type of love with the second highest average (mean) rating.  The type of love with the third highest average mean) rating was friendship. (2) The participants in the above studies were college students. It is not clear whether people who are not college students would have different conceptions of love. These findings on people’s conceptions of love provide some insight into the psychology of love.  These findings suggest that caring, honesty, and trust may be viewed as some of the most important attributes of ove.  Moreover, parental love, especially maternal love, can be viewed as a very good example of love.

Love Definition

It is important to define love.  What is love?  These findings on people’s conceptions of love also have implications concerning the definition of love. A simple definition of love is that it is a feeling reflecting significant caring.

Unconditional Love

What is unconditional love?   Unconditional love can be viewed as selfless love.  This unconditional love definition suggests that love involves significant caring.   In Fehr’s(1988) first study, 6.25 percent of the participants listed unconditional as a feature of love.

Falling in Love

Falling in love can be viewed as one type of love.  It is important to gain an understanding of the process of falling in love.  There are a number of interesting questions concerning the psychology of falling in love.   What precedes the feeling of falling in love?   What are the possible consequences of falling in love?

Aron, Dutton, Aron, and Iverson (1989) conducted three studies concerning the experience of falling in love.  In the first two studies, participants provided descriptive accounts concerning falling in love.  In the third study, participants provided ratings.  The content analyses in the first two studies assessed the incidence of a number of variables which appeared to precede the attraction or was a perceived cause of the attraction.   A significant percentage of the participants in the first two studies reported reciprocal liking (90 percent in the first study and 68 percent in the second study). Moreover, a majority of the participants in the first two studies reported desirable characteristics in the person (78 percent in the first study and 56 percent in the second study).  Also, similarity was reported by some of the participants in the first two studies (18 percent in the first study and 34 percent in the second study). (3)  

Aron, Paris, and Aron (1995) conducted two longitudinal studies concerning some possible consequences of falling in love.  In their first study, they found that falling in love was associated with greater change and diversity of the self-concept.  In their second study, they found that falling in love was found to be associated with increases in self-efficacy and self-esteem.  It is possible that falling in love leads to changes in the self-concept and increases in self-efficacy and self-esteem.  However, because the findings are correlational, there are other possible explanations for the findings. (4)

Notes

1.  See the article for information on other findings.
2.  See their article for information on other findings.
3.  See their article for information concerning the findings
for the third study and information concerning other findings
for the first two studies.
4.  See their article for information on other findings.

References

Aron, A., Dutton, D. G., Aron, E. N., & Iverson, A.  (1989).
Experiences of falling in love.  Journal of Social and
Personal Relationships
6, 243-257.
Aron, A., Paris, M., & Aron, E. N. (1995).  Falling in love:
Prospective studies of self-concept change.  Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology
69, 1102-1112.
Fehr, B. (1988).  Prototype analysis of the concepts of love
and commitment. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology
55, 557-579.
Fehr, B., & Russell, J. A.  (1991).  The concept of love
viewed from a prototype perspective.  Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology
60, 425-238.