Potential jurors' value of evidence as influenced by the CSI Effect or internal factor

There is sometimes a concern about how much televised police and crime scene dramas influence a person's thoughts and ideas. By examining a person's subjective value of pieces of evidence, it is possible to determine whether this person values realistic evidence, like that found in an actual trial, or unrealistic evidence, like the kind television dramas portray. This study found people typically prefer realistic evidence to unrealistic evidence, regardless of the hours watched. In addition, only belief in the accuracy of the televised police and crime scene dramas predicted preference for realistic versus unrealistic evidence. This belief was negatively correlated, meaning that the more accurate one believes the dramas are, the more the viewer values unrealistic evidence. Factors which did not influence a person included the number of hours watched, age, experience, or confidence in their knowledge of crime scene investigation procedures.