Asking about bias

Managing the sensitivities of voir dire questioning

Bibliographic Data

ID3565738
AuthorsE Clayman (0000-0002-8961-162X, University of California, corresponding author), Matthew P Fox (0000-0002-5132-7818, Freiburg im Breisgau)
Year2025
Pages1-25
Publication date2025-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404525101565
OpenAlexW4414705339
LanguageEN
References cited61

Jury selection in the US involves voir dire, an examination process wherein prospective jurors are questioned about their potential for fairness or bias. Such inquiries are hampered by social desirability pressures inhibiting admissions of bias. Analogous pressures hamper survey interviews, but since voir dire examinations are unscripted their study can reveal how desirability pressures are addressed through naturally occurring variations in question design. This article combines sequential and distributional analyses of >100 transcribed question-answer sequences targeting juror fairness/bias, and documents various tendencies and preferences in question design. Court officials focus on bias rather than fairness by default, and the predominant bias-targeting questions are mitigated through: (i) indirect references to bias, (ii) diffusion of responsibility for bias, and (iii) projecting bias as minimal or unlikely. The findings shed light on the social dynamics of jury selection and, more broadly, how question design practices are adapted for inquiry into sensitive subjects. (Questions, law, voir dire, juries, social desirability bias, conversation analysis

Conversation · Focus (optics) · Jury · Jury selection · Response bias · Selection (genetic algorithm) · Social desirability · Social desirability bias · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology of Social Influence · Social and Intergroup Psychology

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