The authors examined perceptions of attorney's credibility and case verdict as a function of attorney's gender. Results indicated that (1) women rated the female attorney as less intelligent, less friendly, less pleasant, less capable, less expert, and less experienced than the male attorney, and (2) mock jurors demonstrated a preference for retaining a male attorney rather than a female attorney as their own personal counsel.

McCuire's inoculation theory employs an analogy to predict the effectiveness of defenses in inducing resistance to persuasion. In discussing this analogy, McGuire states that it is necessary to use beliefs which have not been attacked previously. Many studies have used inoculation theory to predict resistance with beliefs which have been attacked.We argue that McGuire is incorrect in his interpretation of the analogy and discuss an experimental test of different defenses' effectiveness over three belief levels.

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A defendant portrayed as either very anxious or not anxious was found guilty less of the time than when he was portrayed as only moderately anxious.