About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about jury persuasion by witness and defendant characteristics, focusing in particular on: (i) strategies used by legal professionals to influence jury decisions; (ii) three important models of persuasion, starting with Hovland and Janis’ 1959 Yale Model of Persuasion; (iii) the four key elements of this model being source, message, recipient, and situation; (iv) the two further models of persuasion as storytelling and rhetorical strategy.

About the lecturer

Professor Ciarán O’Keeffe is associate professor of education and research and head of the School of Human and Social Sciences at Buckinghamshire New University. Professor O’Keeffe’s research interests include investigative psychology and parapsychology, and has made numerous television and radio appearances alongside an array of celebrities. Some of Professor O’Keeffe’s recent publications include 'Things That Go Bump In The Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of 'Haunted Houses'' (2020) and 'Restorative Justice and Recidivism: Investigating the impact of victim-preference for level of engagement' (2014).