ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an unusual blend of some kind of interests. It brings together the practical interests of the professional bar and the theoretical concerns of behavioral scientists. Behavioral scientists are interested in the problem because the jury offers an excellent forum for testing the influence of social status on attitudes and decisions. The chapter reviews the professional lore which the bar has accumulated about juror selection. Selecting a jury with the right combination of social characteristics, they believe, can mean the difference between winning and losing a case. Jurors are selected from almost all layers of society and represent a great diversity of social and cultural backgrounds. The chapter examines three clues for measuring jurors’ influence: the selection of the foreman, the relative participation by sex and occupation, and the frequency with which a minority of the jurors succeed in persuading a majority to shift their verdicts.
