FLEXIBLE CORRECTIONS OF JUROR JUDGMENTS Implications for Jury Instructions

The Flexible Correction Model (FCM, D. T. Wegener & R. E. Petty, 1997 ; D. T. Wegener, R. E. Petty, & M. Dunn, 1998 ) conceptualizes efforts at bias correction (i.e., attempts to remove influences that are perceived as illegitimate or unwanted) as guided by people's naive theories (perceptions) of the influences at work in that judgment setting. In this article, the authors present this model, discuss the general support for this model outside of courtroom judgment, and discuss a variety of implications of this model for courtroom judgment in general and for the impact of judges' instructions to juries in particular.