ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the methodology of a study designed to investigate reactions of mock jurors to meta-responsibility information within insanity defence case vignettes. The relation of motive to the mental disorder is important; especially in the case of a 'product' test of insanity such as the McNaughton Rules or meta-responsibility insanity test (MRIT) under which the crime must in some way be the product of the 'disease of the mind'. The insanity test factor was represented by either a McNaughton test or a MRIT, which gave subjects the opportunity to reflect their meta-responsibility determinations in their insanity verdicts. Laboratory studies are also economical in terms of time and finance. Such an 'unnatural' experiment was therefore felt to best serve the fledgling meta-responsibility theory. Medication non-compliance provided the meta-responsibility component in the vignette. Either non-compliance did not occur, occurred due to medication side-effects, or occurred in the context of a preference for a mentally disordered existence.
